


Peter Parker and the Terrible, Horrible, Awful, Disastrous Week

by GinnyRose



Series: Peter Parker: Disaster Bi Extraordinaire [10]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Assumed Exhibitionism, Bathroom conversations, Bisexual Peter Parker, Comfort, Cuddling, Field Trip, Flirting, Fluff, Kissing, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Mentions of Sex, Ned Leeds is a Little Shit, Ned Leeds is the Best Boyfriend, Parker Luck, Peter Parker is Dramatic, Peter can't catch a break, Precious Peter Parker, Sharing a Bed, Sneaking Out, Steve Rogers Tries, Technically not Breaking Rules, The Talk, Tony is still angry, Worried May Parker (Spider-Man), mild team iron man, tony stark is a little shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2019-10-14 08:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 32,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17504732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyRose/pseuds/GinnyRose
Summary: The world was ending. It wasn't ending in a blaze of glory that the survivors of could write in their history books. The world was ending with just one small item. The world was ending with a single piece of paper, the damning words written in small, precise black letters. The world was ending with a field trip permission slip to the worst place on Earth for Peter to go to a field trip to.The world was ending with a field trip to the Avengers’ Compound.OR: Peter Parker thought the most humiliating thing possible had already happened to him but when Mr. Harrington announces a surprise field trip to the Compound for Peter and nineteen other classmates he realizes the worst has yet to come. An impromptu visit to Ned after one of his patrols, meant to take his mind off the impending disaster, only makes everything so much worse.





	1. Chapter 1

It was the end of the world. There were no cars screeching, no buildings crashing down from the sky, no people shrieking at the tops of their lungs as aliens came down with weapons no one on earth understood. There were no earthquakes or storms, no major power outages that lasted days, no famine starving out the people. There were no meteors striking the earth, no outbreak of terrible diseases, no zombies trying to devour the brains of the general populace.

                No, there were no calamities hitting the earth and bringing on the apocalypse. But nevertheless, the world was ending.

                Peter would have honestly preferred the disasters. Because the world was ending, and it wasn’t even happening in a cool way.

                No, the world wasn’t ending in a blaze of glory that the survivors of could write in their history books. The world was ending with just one small item. The world was ending with a single piece of paper, the damning words written in small, precise black letters. The world was ending with a field trip permission slip to the worst place on Earth for Peter to go to a field trip to.

                The world was ending with a field trip to the Avengers’ Compound.

                A field trip with the rest of the “Top 20” of his year. As a reward for their academic success, Mr. Harrington had said.

                Some reward it was; the end of the world.

                Perhaps he was being dramatic. The rest of the students had been so excited when their names were announced at the mini-assembly Principal Morita had called for the event. Peter himself had been torn between excitement – it always felt nice to be rewarded for something – and dread – he had really _really_ bad luck at field trips and it had been this field trip Freshman year that had ended with him getting bit. But he had been slightly hopeful as he stood in the center of the gym with the rest of the 20 students.

                That hope had very quickly turned to horror when Principal Morita had stepped aside to let Mr. Harrington announce where the students were going this year. Peter hadn’t even been able to fake excitement; he had just stood in shock while the rest of the students had cheered loudly all around him. Almost all the students, anyway. MJ never really did anything loudly and Ned had at least been aware of the situation  enough to grab Peter’s hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. It hadn’t helped much - one of the rare times that a touch from Ned didn’t make Peter feel better. But it had grounded him enough that he was able to give a hopefully convincing smile to Mr. Harrington as the older man handed him the permission slip. It took all of Peter’s willpower not to crumble the paper immediately.

                Flash’s immediate response hadn’t helped the situation at all either. Despite Mr. Stark sending Happy to dispel the rumors that Peter had been lying about the internship, Flash had started throwing around the old rumors again – had even claimed that Peter had paid a Stark employee to lie for him as though Peter had the amount of money that would require. He’d begun taunting Peter the moment the assembly ended, claiming that he’d be able to prove that Peter’s internship was fake and that the whole school would finally get to see what a liar Peter was. Ned had shut him down quickly enough but Flash’s words and Peter’s noticeably unhappy expression was enough for the rest of the school to begin murmuring that Flash might have been right all along. Peter had received more than a few pitying glances that made the situation all the worse.

                Ned had walked Peter home after Academic Decathlon practice, chatting animatedly in the hopes of cheering up his boyfriend. It hadn’t worked – the dread of the field trip slip had weighed Peter down the entire way home – but Peter had appreciated the attempt and thanked him with a soft kiss before he left. He would have stayed had he been asked, Peter knew, but it was Ned’s mother’s birthday and Peter didn’t want to keep him away from the preparation of the surprise party that Ned and his little sisters always tried and failed to pull off secretly.

                Which had left Peter in his current predicament – staring at the hated piece of paper and wondering if he had enough time to burn it and get rid of the smoke before May got home. Had it been a normal field trip, he would have just told her he didn’t want to go and that would have been the end of it. But it was the Compound and there was no way his aunt wouldn’t make him go. May was a good mother-figure, but she was also a total troll. He still had an abundance of Spider-Man underwear to prove that.

                Peter glanced at the clock. It was nearing six o’clock now, which meant May would be getting home from her shift soon. There was no time to hide the smell of burnt paper. Maybe he could put in the sink and let the garbage disposal eat it? He didn’t think paper would mess up the disposal but he should probably check first. May would be furious if he messed up the disposal. Again. Peter pulled out his phone, about to google whether or not paper could go down the garbage disposal, when several messages popped up on his screen. Peter’s hopes of hiding the trip faded as he read the texts from his aunt. 

                _Running a little late. Be home in 20. Pick a place to order dinner_

_NOT pizza. Pick something with veggies!_

_Also Tony called me earlier to tell me about the trip to the compound so don’t even think about destroying the field trip form_

                The last message was followed by a smiley face. It sat there, mocking Peter as he tried not to throw his phone against the wall.

                The universe didn’t just hate him. The universe _despised_ him. And he was starting to think the adults in his life weren’t too fond of him either. Only someone who hated him would put him through this torture, Peter was convinced. But maybe he could still convince his aunt that letting him go was a bad idea. She was on his side about him keeping his identity; it could be possible to convince her that his identity would be in danger if he went.

                Then again, if Mr. Stark knew about it and wanted him to go badly enough that he called May to warn her about it, he might do something awfully embarrassing if Peter didn’t show up.

                The universe really, _really_ despised him.

                Peter ordered two veggie bowls from May’s favorite “healthy” place, a slightly over-priced bistro that her friend swore by that they only ever ate at when May was on  a health kick. Personally, Peter didn’t see the point in ordering healthy food when pizza was cheaper and more delicious anyway, but he also knew it would be easier to convince May to be on his side if she was already in a good mood.

                The food showed up before May did and Peter busied himself setting the food on the table and getting out silverware, hoping to further soften his aunt with a family-style dinner. He had just sat down two glasses of water when she walked in the door.

                “Hey May!” He was careful to keep his voice casual, as if he hadn’t spent a good majority of the day freaking out. Getting out of the field trip would require finesse; he had to convince his aunt that not letting him go was a matter of Spider-Man security while also acting as though he had wanted to go but simply couldn’t. It was a fine line to walk; especially when Peter knew he’d rather get punched by Captain America again then go to the field trip. “How was work?” He asked, making sure to plant a smile on his face as his aunt came into the kitchen.

                “It was good! We had a rather fussy baby come in at the last minute whose mother was convinced that his 6-months shots made him sick when really, he was just colicky but other than that, it was good. That smells delicious,” she added, coming over to see the table. “From the Leaf Garden?” she asked, a hint of approval in her voice as she gave him a quick pat on his shoulder.

                “Yup, so plenty of vegetables as requested.” Peter responded and his aunt smiled as she moved towards the sink to wash her hands. Peter itched to bring up the field trip but he knew better. He had to play it cool and wait for her to bring it up. Show that it really wasn’t bothering him. “So you talked to Mr. Stark earlier?” Peter wasn’t really known for his subtlety. But that also wasn’t really about the field trip so it didn’t really count.

                “I did.” May answered, drying her hands on a dish towel before turning back to her nephew. “You have an interesting school trip coming up.” Peter tried to keep his face neutral as his aunt sat down at the table and he hastened to follow her.

                “Yeah, Mr. Harrington announced it today at an assembly.” That was casual. A perfectly normal thing to say. “I don’t think I should go.” Had he said that too quickly? He resisted the urge to drum his fingers against the table by picking up his fork and taking an overly large bite from his bowl, nearly choking on a piece of grilled chicken.

                May was barely hiding a knowing smile as she picked up her own fork. “Oh? And why’s that?” She asked as she took a much more reasonably sized bite from her own bowl. Peter grasped at his glass and took a large gulp of water before responding.

                “Um, well.” Peter cleared his throat as he placed his water back down. This wasn’t going too well, he had to admit. And the smile still on May’s face spelled nothing but trouble for him. Still, he had to push on. “I just don’t think it’s really a good idea for me to go to the Compound as, you know,” he gestured down at himself, “ _me_ with other students. I’m worried about them finding out,” He made sure to drop his gaze before peeking back up at his aunt, eyes thrown wide in the most innocent, sincere expression he could muster. It was his Hail Mary pass; if the eyes didn’t work nothing would.

                May hummed in thought as she took another bite. Peter wanted to force himself to eat some more, his fork already prepared with another bite of his dinner, but he was worried he would choke again the moment his aunt spoke up. “I did bring that up with Tony.” May admitted and Peter scrambled to keep the sudden bloom of hope off his face. That wasn’t a bad response at all; maybe this really _would_ work. He raised his fork to his face in an attempt to hide the hopeful upward twinge of his lips. “He seems to think it’ll be fine. Especially since everyone at school believes you have an internship now.” Everyone except Flash, Peter almost said. But that would start a very different conversation with his aunt that he didn’t need to start up now.

                “They think I’m an intern at Stark Industries, though. It would be kind of weird that a high schooler has an internship directly under Tony Stark.” He said instead, forcing himself to take another bite of his food, barely tasting whatever it was.

                “I suppose, but it’s not like it would be out of character for Tony Stark to do something like that. Besides, that’s the official story he gave the Rogues, isn’t it?” There was a bit of distaste in May’s voice when she mentioned the Rogue Avengers that made Peter feel a little guilty; he and Mr. Stark had come clean about going to Germany and although Peter hadn’t gone into detail about the fight itself, May had remembered his comment about getting hit by a guy from Brooklyn and had put it together. She had been rather curt whenever they spoke about Captain America and his side ever since and Peter knew he was partially to blame for that. He’d have to apologize if the Captain and his aunt ever met. “It would be better to keep up the same cover on all sides, wouldn’t it?”

                She was right but Peter didn’t want to admit it. It was becoming more and more clear that there was no way May wasn’t signing the slip. He stared down at his bowl, trying not to look too dejected. “It would be more suspicious if you didn’t go, I think. Especially because there’s no way Tony isn’t going to mention you.” Peter’s eyes shot up at that.

                “You think he’s going to talk about me?” He tried to keep the panic from his voice but the rather large crack in the middle of his sentence didn’t do him any favors. May at least had the decency to hide her amusement behind her water glass as she lifted it for a drink.

                “He told me he would today. I think it’s best you go and make sure Tony doesn’t say anything too ridiculous, don’t you?” She said, just a bit too innocently. Peter’s eyes narrowed.

                “You planned this!” He accused, pointing at her with his fork. May laughed.

                “I had nothing to do with it. But I’ll greatly enjoy the stories from it. You’re going.” She was still smiling widely as she spoke but Peter could hear the finality in her tone. It wouldn’t matter anyway, he supposed. He couldn’t leave Mr. Stark unattended with his classmates if he wanted any of his dignity to remain in tact afterwards.

                That didn’t stop him from grumbling at his aunt as they finished their meal and washed up together. Or to himself as he slid on the Spider-Man suit and slipped out of his bedroom window. Normally, he would have gone out the front door and changed into the suit outside of the apartment but he didn’t feel like getting the “be safe” lecture from his aunt as he passed her in the living room. So he went out the window and slid gracefully down into the alley behind their apartment.

                “Hello, Peter.” Karen’s soothing voice greeted him and Peter felt himself relax as he shot himself up onto the neighboring apartment’s roof. It was always relieving to put aside everything else and just focus on helping New York. He could almost forget that his life was ending on Friday.

                “Hey, Karen. How are you?” Peter knew the AI was programmed to always say that she was fine but it felt weird to greet someone and not ask how they were.

                “I am well. How are you?” Peter shrugged as he ran across the roof and shot himself over to the next one, knowing that Karen could read the gesture.

                “I’ve been better. Any crime nearby?” It was still early; most of the crime in the area didn’t really start up until it had gone completely dark but Peter could usually count on one or two people getting an early start on the nightly activities. Karen took the hint that he didn’t want to talk about himself and directed him towards some suspicious activity a few blocks down.

                The night passed in a series of small-scale fights which all ended with Peter leaving a tied-up criminal or two and a note for the police stating what he had caught them doing. It was all minor thugs and only one had even managed to hit Peter, a lucky shot with the crook’s car door that had left his thigh smarting slightly, but they were enough to keep Peter’s mind occupied and away from thoughts about the field trip. It was all autopilot by now – Karen reported criminal activity in her smooth voice, Peter swung himself over and down, tied up the criminals with a few snarky comments, and swung back up again. Nothing new. Before the Vulture, the monotony would have bored Peter but now he felt comfort in the familiarity. He’d even gotten to catch up with a few of the criminals he’d already caught before, although they had seemed much less thrilled at their reunion than he had. It was routine, and Peter loved routine.

                He ended the night back on a Queens’ apartment roof, just a few down from his own, with a hotdog in hand. Aunt May probably wouldn’t like that he was having junk food so late at night but Peter had gotten it for free from his favorite vendor – a thank you for catching a pickpocket that was keeping business away from his cart – and Peter could never refuse a gift. Especially if it was free food. Normally, he would have called Ned by now to talk about his night but he knew his boyfriend was probably still celebrating his mother’s birthday, so he settled for sending a few texts about the highlights and chatting with Karen idly as he ate his second dinner.

                It was Karen who told him he was ten minutes away from being late for curfew and Peter groaned as he stood up from the cold concrete of the roof and prepared himself to swing the rest of the way home. He was tired but didn’t want to go home – home meant taking off the suit and dealing with his problems again and he really, _really_ didn’t want to think about the field trip. Still, he knew Karen would not hesitate to call Mr. Stark or May if Peter was still in the suit after 11 so he prepared himself to make his way home.

                He had just been about to shoot some of his webbing and swing over to the next building when his phone vibrated and Peter jumped at the chance for a little distraction, fishing his phone out from one of the pockets in his suit. How Mr. Stark managed to include pockets that didn’t show in a skintight suit, Peter still wasn’t sure, but he appreciated it nonetheless because without it, all of his texts would have to go through Karen and Peter wasn’t sure he wanted some of his conversations backed up to a place Mr. Stark could read them.

                _Sounds like you’ve had fun! are you still out or have you gone home?_

Ned’s message was followed by a small smiley face and Peter felt the tension in his body loosen some as he stood back from the edge and began to text back. It wouldn’t take long and he was sure Mr. Stark and May wouldn’t mind if he was a minute or so late.

                _About to head home. How was your mom’s party?_

He meant to leave right after that, preparing to slip his phone back into his pocket but Ned must have still had his phone in his hand because his response came before Peter had shut the messages app and Peter couldn’t just leave the other boy on _read_.

                _It was good! She totally saw it coming because Mads left out some of the party things but it was still lots of fun! I can tell you more about it tomorrow since Im sure you’re exhausted_

Ned’s text was followed with their customary three heart goodnight message and Peter frowned slightly. He didn’t want to keep Ned up if the other boy was tired, but he also craved the distraction that his boyfriend could provide. He also really didn’t want to go home and wallow in his anxiety over Friday alone. Peter bit his lip slightly, careful not to snag the mask, considering his options. He could just text Ned goodnight and get home before he truly broke curfew. Or –

                Well, there wasn’t any harm in asking if he could stop by for a quick in-person goodnight when it was on his way anyway. He’d only be five minutes late.

                _Actually, Im pretty awake. Can I stop by to say goodnight?_

Peter pressed send before he could overthink it and back out, his heart pounding a little faster than usual. It was silly, really, for him to be freaking out – it was a completely innocent request, he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Ned’s apartment building was close to his anyway – technically on the way if he swung a left instead of heading straight – it would only make him a few minutes past curfew. And May had never told him he couldn’t swing by to say goodnight to Ned and if he didn’t swing fully inside Ned’s window, he wouldn’t be breaking her and the Leeds’s rule about being alone with the door closed. And Ned could always say no, anyway. Or have already fallen asleep. Or -  

                Peter’s phone buzzed in his hand before he could really work himself up to a panic and his heart skipped a beat as he looked down at the message.

                _Of course! I’ll leave the window open a bit  for you to slip in_

Peter breathed a soft sight of relief – he really _hadn’t_ wanted to go home – as he slid his phone into his pocket and moved to the other wall, preparing to swing over to Ned’s apartment.

                “Hey, Karen?” He called as he shot a line of webs over.

                “Yes, Peter?”

                Peter was blushing a bit, despite himself. “Would it be possible to – um – not record for the next few minutes? I’m not doing anything wrong!” He hastened to add, testing the hold of his line with a sharp tug, “I’m just going to say goodnight to a –“ Peter paused for a moment, unsure how much he wanted to admit, “friend” he finally settled on.

                Karen didn’t respond for a moment. “Would you like to me to implement the Sock on the Door Protocol, Peter?” Peter’s blush darkened. He really hated Mr. Stark sometimes.

                “Yes, please.” He said, wishing just a little that he could slide into a hole.

                “I can do that for a few minutes, Peter, as long as you are do not engage in any fighting. I will also begin recording again if you are still in the suit past eleven which is in seven minutes and thirty-two seconds.” Peter planned to be swinging home by then, so that was fine.

                “Awesome! You’re the best, Karen!” Peter said before taking a deep breath and throwing himself off the edge. There was a split moment – there always was – before the web went taut under his weight when it felt like he was free-falling. Peter loved the adrenaline rush it gave him every time and he had to bite back the whoop that rose to his throat. It was late and he also didn’t want anyone seeing the infamous Spider-Man making a private call to an apartment. He could only imagine how terribly that would go over with the Daily Bugle.

                Peter landed softly on the side of Ned’s apartment building, just a few floors down from the roof, and began making his way downwards, leaving his webbing behind to dissipate on its own. Ned’s family lived on the third floor of the large complex but it didn’t take long before Peter had reached it and began counting windows. Ned’s family had lived in the same cozy three-bedroom apartment throughout their entire relationship and Peter had Ned’s bedroom – three windows down from the alleyway – memorized just as well as his own. It didn’t take long to reach it – Ned had indeed left it open slightly – and Peter tapped lightly on the glass. He could have slipped in easily but he felt a little strange to give Ned no warning before entering his bedroom through the window. It felt just a little too close to the stalkerish side of things. Plus, if Peter didn’t enter into the room, he wasn’t breaking any rules. Technically.

                It didn’t take long for Ned’s silhouette, illuminated by the soft glow of his desk lamp, to appear at the window and open it wide. He was dressed already for bed in a faded Harry Potter t-shirt and Star Wars pajama bottoms, his hair damp from the shower and curling slightly around the tips of his ears. He was beautiful and Peter couldn’t help but smile as he pulled up his mask so that it rested on the bridge of his nose and leaned in through the window just far enough to press a soft kiss on the other boy’s lips. Ned kissed back just as softly and Peter pulled away before either could deepen it. He’d only meant to stop by and say goodnight after all. Already, Ned’s presence was making the looming specter of the Friday field trip seem more bearable, which meant Peter had accomplished what he wanted.

                “Hey.” Ned’s voice was warm and a soft smile was playing on his lips.

                “Hey.” Peter responded back, still leaning slightly through the window and using the tips of his fingers on the window sill to keep his balance. “Just wanted to say goodnight.” He added, a small flush spreading across his cheeks. Ned cocked his head in response.

                “Through the window?” There was a playful lilt to his voice as he raised a single eyebrow at the boy outside. “Why not come in and give me a proper goodnight?” Peter’s blush darkened at the easy tease in Ned’s voice.

                “That would be inappropriate.” Peter responded honestly, his own tone playful despite himself. 

                “You mean Spider-Man _came_ all the way to my window in the middle of the night just for a peck through the window?” Peter had meant to shoot back that Ned’s window was technically on Spider-Man’s way home and he was, therefore, not that special, but then Ned had stepped slightly away from the window and shot Peter a sly, mischievous grin that always sent pleasant shivers down his spine and his mouth went dry with the words still unsaid on the tip of his tongue.

                “My door’s open a bit to let Pig in and out. So we technically won’t be in a closed bedroom alone.” Peter was pretty sure that Ned’s logic was much less sound than his own through-the-window plan and that if he actually went into Ned’s room, he wasn’t going to make it home within the five-minute grace period he’d given himself for curfew. He should refuse and swing his way home. “Come on, babe,” Ned goaded slightly, taking another small step from the window so that when Peter came in, he wouldn’t immediately bowl into the other boy. Peter’s resolve crumbled like tissue paper and he was crawling into the room without a second thought. He’d do just about anything Ned asked when he used that voice. It was a problem, really.

                Except, when Ned was smiling at him like that and raising his hands to gently pull his mask off the rest of the way, Peter couldn’t quite remember why it was an issue. And when Ned was pressing his lips against Peter’s again, more earnestly than before, his fingers twisting gently into the mess of curls at the nape of his neck, all thoughts fled his mind entirely as his arms wrapped around Ned’s waist and pulled him in until they were pressed tightly together. Peter had never had a single worry strong enough to break through the euphoria that came from Ned kissing him.

                They broke away after several moments, breathing hard to catch their breath and neither bothering to step away or break their hold of the other. There was something thrilling, Peter had to admit, about holding Ned against him late at night. Something exhilarating about the forbidden nature of it all. He had stayed over countless times in this room; he’d stayed in it when the walls were baby blue and covered with large stickers of Disney characters and tacked on stick figures of Ned’s family, had stayed in it when the walls were repainted a more “mature” muted blue and the stickers were replaced with a dozen posters of all Ned’s favorite movies and books, many of which still hung. He knew this room nearly as well as he did his own and still there was a thrilling shiver running down his spine about being in it now. Late at night, with Ned dressed in worn pajamas, and no adults around to monitor them with parental gazes.

                Part of the thrill was in breaking the rules, Peter could admit; he was generally a good kid but that didn’t mean he didn’t exalt in the occasional rule-bending – only bending because, despite thinking the door-cracked-open excuse was flimsy at best, he still clung to it. But the greater part of the thrill, Peter knew, was in being with Ned. The thrill was in holding him close and feeling the warmth of Ned’s body against his and the weight of his arms on his shoulders; in feeling Ned’s fingers tug lightly at his curls while he absently traced circles on Ned’s hips with his own. It was like being up on the roof all over again, like stepping off and feeling the exhilaration of falling right before his web went taut. Peter hoped that feeling would never go away.

                “I should go.” Peter said regrettably, after a quiet moment. Ned made a disgruntled sound.

                “You just got here.” He responded and Peter couldn’t help but smile at the slight disappointment in Ned’s voice.

                “Karen’s gonna call Mr. Stark if I’m still in the suit after curfew.” Peter explained, loosening his hold on Ned but making no effort to step away from the other boy or pull his arms away completely.

                “There’s a simple solution to that.” Ned’s mischievous smile was back in place as he moved away far enough to give Peter a slow up-and-down look. Peter felt his face heat up at the other boy’s obvious implication.

                “I am not stripping in your bedroom with your parents five feet away!” Peter was careful to keep his voice a low hiss. Ned’s smile grew into a grin.

                “But you would strip if they _weren’t_ five feet away?” He wheedled and Peter’s cheeks reddened further, in a valiant attempt at impersonating tomatoes.

                “I did _not_ say that!” Peter tried very hard to keep the squeak out of his voice as Ned laughed softly, obviously more mindful to the fact that his parents were home than he was letting on.

                “Relax, babe. I actually meant I could give you pajamas to borrow.” Peter knew Ned well enough to know the boy was completely full of it, but Peter always went a little weak in the knees when Ned used _that_ pet name and he felt his indignation soften. “If you want to stay, anyway.” Ned added and there was a bit of sudden self-consciousness in his tone that had Peter’s heart clenching. It was hard, sometimes - with all of Ned’s easy flirting and seemingly never-ending confidence - to remember that the other boy was just as new to all of this as he was. It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time, to see the same type of insecurity that he felt reflected back in Ned. With that, and the small, shy smile Ned was shooting him, any argument Peter might have made to go crumpled.

                “Okay,” He agreed and Ned’s face erupted into a bright grin and he stepped away fully to turn and ruffle through his drawers for a set of clothes that would fit the slighter boy. “But only for a bit.” Peter added. “And you have to turn away while I’m changing out of the suit! No peeking!” He continued when Ned turned back to him and pressed the change of clothes into his chest.

                “Of course!” Ned said, acting as though Peter’s stipulations were obvious. He made a show of turning around so that his back faced Peter. “Even though it’s literally nothing I haven’t seen before.” He added as Peter pressed a hand against the spider on his chest so that the suit loosened all around him.

                “It’s different now!” Peter argued as he slipped out of the suit and kicked it into a corner of the room. “We weren’t dating before!” He slid the pants – a faded pair of gray sweats that had a drawstring Peter could use to tighten them around his hips – on as he spoke, careful as always to keep his voice low enough that the rest of the apartment couldn’t hear him. He was mindful more than ever now, standing half naked in the room as he fumbled with the t-shirt Ned had given him, that Ned’s door was slightly ajar.

                “Alright, alright.” There was a placating tone in Ned’s voice as he spoke and Peter barely resisted rolling his eyes at it as he slid the t-shirt over his head. “Are you decent, yet?”

Peter nodded before remembering that Ned couldn’t see him and he blushed slightly as he responded, “yeah, you can turn around now.” He didn’t quite understand why – he had borrowed Ned’s clothing before – but he felt rather self-conscious standing in his boyfriend’s clothing as he turned around to face him. Ned’s smile – which had been bright as he turned around – seemed to falter slightly as he took Peter in, his expression turning into one Peter had never seen before. Peter barely resisted fidgeting as Ned looked him up and down slowly.

“I can change back, if you want,” he said, looking down. He didn’t know why wearing Ned’s clothes seemed to bother the other boy but he wasn’t about to do anything that made him upset.

“No! I mean –“ It was Ned’s turn to look flustered. “You look – good.” The room was dark, lit only by the lamp Ned had near his window, but Peter could almost swear he could see Ned’s cheeks darken. “In my clothes.” Ned added, looking down at Peter’s feet as if the admission was something awful. Peter felt his own cheeks heat up but he was smiling as he also looked down, playing absently with the drawstring of the borrowed sweats.

“Thanks,” he whispered, unsure what else to say, darting a glance at Ned through his eyelashes. The other boy was still flustered but he returned Peter’s glance with a shy one of his own. Peter smiled at him and Ned’s face split into an answering grin. Just like that, all the uncertainty vanished, replaced with the warm comfort that almost always accompanied them. 

“I can’t believe I said that.” Ned told him, looking as if he was on the verge of laughter. “Can we please pretend I never said that?” Peter’s grin grew wide. It was rare for him to have the upper hand and there was no way he was letting it go easily.

“Absolutely not. I’m going to get a poster made and frame it in my room.” MJ had been in a poster making kick ever since she had finished all the pages in her sketchbook of “human crises ” and he was pretty sure he could easily convince her to make him a poster if it involved embarrassing Ned. It was fair play, since Ned’s sisters had taken it upon themselves to make a scrapbook of his and Peter’s relationship and they had glued pages from the now infamous notebook into it with the full support of their brother. Peter was never going to let that one go.

“I will do literally anything to keep this between us.” Ned responded, leaning in towards Peter with a beseeching gesture. Peter’s grin widened. Chances to tease Ned were few and far between. He wouldn’t let this one get away. He stepped closer to Ned so that the other boy had to look up to keep eye contact with him.

“Anything?” Peter asked, careful to pitch his voice even lower in the way he knew sent shivers down Ned’s spine. The way Ned’s gaze went heavy told him it had worked. Peter leaned in even closer, so that his lips were nearly grazing against Ned’s. “Would you admit I’m better at Smash Brothers?” He whispered, close enough that the words tickled against the other boy’s lips.

Ned jerked back, a wide-eyed look of betrayal on his face that nearly sent Peter into a fit of laughter. “Never!” The other boy whisper-yelled and Peter had to bite his lip to keep from laughing loudly and blowing their whole night by waking up the rest of the apartment. “You’re the worst!” Ned continued and Peter couldn’t help the brief burst of quiet laughter that escaped him. “The _absolute_ worst!” He added. He sounded indignant but he was hiding a smile and leaning slightly towards Peter as he spoke, so Peter knew not to take his words too seriously.

“I was just kidding,” Peter whispered, reaching out to take hold of Ned’s hand and intertwine their fingers. “Forgive me?” he asked, pulling Ned’s hand towards him. The other boy willingly went with the tugging so that he wound up softly pressed against Peter again. He was smiling openly now as Peter leaned down and pressed a feather light kiss on the corner of his mouth.

“You really know how to make an apology count.” Ned murmured against Peter’s lips before pressing his own kiss on the other boy’s lips. It was soft and brief, but both boys were smiling as they pulled away. “Come sit.” Ned offered, stepping back from Peter and tugging him softly towards his bed in the corner of the room. Peter followed willingly and they sat on the bed together, positioning themselves so that they were across from each other with their legs twined together. “You want to talk?” Ned asked once they were settled, his fingers tracing feather-light patterns on the back of Peter’s hand.  Peter felt himself stiffen slightly as he remembered why he craved the distraction of Ned’s company.

“It’s nothing.” He murmured, twisting his wrist slightly so that his fingertips were brushing against Ned’s own.

“Peter.” Ned said, a serious tone undercutting the soft whisper of his voice, “You asked me if you could come over at eleven, after a Spider-Man patrol. You’ve never done that before. Something’s up.” Ned’s voice was sure, in a tone that allowed for no argument, but also soft and warm, encouraging Peter to speak up. Peter made a face at him in response before looking down at their still touching hands.

“I’m just –“ Peter began tracing circles on the palm of Ned’s hand as he spoke, “really not looking forward to the field trip to the compound. And I tried to get May to not let me go, but Mr. Stark already spoke to her and there’s no way to change the both of their minds.” Ned made a soft understanding noise. He could sympathize with the impenetrable force of parental figures in agreement on something. “And I know it’s silly, but I just can’t shake away the feeling that something awful is going to happen while we are there. Like, Mr. Stark’s going to end up saying something that blows my Spider-Man cover or Flash is going to be Flash and do something super embarrassing that will haunt me for the rest of high school. Or-“ Peter’s voice cut off as Ned leaned forward, moving his hand out of Peter’s reach and placing it reassuringly on his shoulder.

“It’s going to be alright. I’ll be there with you. And MJ’s going to be there too, to help you get through it all. There’s no way Flash would be stupid enough to try anything with her around and if he does, Mr. Stark’s helped you with him before when he was spreading rumors about your internship, right? There’s no way he’d put up with him lying right in front of him. And he’s a smart man – he might do something mildly embarrassing but never anything to jeopardize your identity or completely humiliate you. And – and this bears repeating as it is the _most_ important part – I’ll be there right next to you the whole time and if anything crappy happens, we will deal with it together, alright?” Despite his worries, Peter couldn’t help but smile at the earnestness in Ned’s voice and eyes. The other boy always knew what to say.

“You’re right. It’ll be okay.” Peter nodded, as if the physical movement would help banish all the doubts that still lingered. “Tell me about your mom’s birthday.” He added, grabbing Ned’s hand and folding their fingers together. It was an obvious attempt at changing the subject but Ned willingly allowed it, perking up at the mention of his mother’s party.

“It went super well! Mom knew it was happening of course, because of Mads, but –“ Peter felt himself relax and smile softly as Ned spoke. There was always a tenderness to Ned’s expression when he talked about his family – one that Peter was sure he wore when he talked about Aunt May or reminisced about Ben – and it always comforted Peter. It was familiar and warm, just one of the many things about Ned that was, and Peter allowed himself to be drawn into it as he listened to Ned recount the entire party. Then, when Ned had finished, Peter shared the highlights of his patrol with him, grinning at Ned’s excitement and the way he always gasped or laughed at the right time.

They continued speaking – Ned about his mother’s party and Peter about his patrol – until their excited sentences slowed into half-finished statements that eventually puttered into slurred murmurs until both boys were asleep, a tangle of interlocked limbs on the twin bed.

Peter was woken up just a few hours later by the soft sound of giggling. Confused and groggy, the first thought that came to his mind was that he must have fallen asleep to Netflix again and he tried to twist himself around to slap blindly at his laptop until the sound stopped. When his attempt at moving was met with a warm, snuggly barrier that most _definitely_ didn’t belong in his bed, his eyes flew wide open.

Ned was lying next to him - one leg thrown over Peter’s and one arm wrapped around his waist– how he hadn’t noticed the touching limbs when he first woke Peter didn’t know. He wasn’t nearly as concerned about that as he was the wide, twin pairs of deep brown eyes that were looking right at him over Ned’s shoulder.

Ned’s little sisters were standing just a foot away from Peter, still dressed in pajamas, giggling quietly as they stared unabashedly at the two teens. Peter’s face flamed as the realization of where he was and who he was with hit him. He was in Ned’s bedroom. In Ned’s _bed._ With _Ned._

“Shit,” Ned’s sisters giggled harder and Peter’s cheeks darkened. He would have jumped out of the bed if he was able, but he had somehow ended up on the side of the bed tucked against the wall and unless he either climbed up the wall or climbed on top of and over Ned – both options _impossible_ with two twelve-year-olds in the room – he was stuck. “Ned,” he hissed, “wake _up._ ” He was careful to keep his voice low and his eyes on the two girls – if he kept eye contact, they might not run out to tell Ned’s parents what they had found – as he pushed Ned non-too gently.

Ned just murmured incoherently and snuggled closer to Peter, causing a louder set of giggles to erupt from the twins. Peter was pretty sure his face had never been so hot before. “Ned!” He tried again, pushing the boy again a little more forcibly.

The result was nearly instantaneous as Peter miscalculated his strength and accidentally sent Ned toppling out of bed, one of his feet caught in the blankets, causing him to twist slightly and land on his back with a loud enough thud that Peter winced in sympathy. The girls’ giggles broke into full laughter at the wide-eyed look of surprise on Ned’s face as he finally woke. He stared up at Peter in confusion, one hand rising to rub against the back of his head where it had met with the floor. Before Peter had a chance to warn the boy or jump off the bed and hide, Ned’s mother came bustling in.

“What is going on? Girls, I asked you to wake your brother _gently_ , I swear if you jumped on his bed again, you’ll be gro-“ Mrs. Leeds’ lecture ground to a sudden halt as she took in the scene inside her eldest’s room. The twins were standing in the center of the room, laughing to themselves, Ned was sprawled on the floor, one foot still hopelessly tangled in the mess of the blankets that had been pulled off the bed with him, staring at his mother in abject horror. And then, as the shiny cherry of awfulness on top, there was Peter, dressed in overly large pajamas that obviously didn’t belong to him, still lying on his stomach and leaning half off the bed, frozen in his attempt to check on his boyfriend.

“Oh.” Was all Mrs. Leeds said as she stared at the two boys. “ _Oh._ ” She repeated and Peter winced. There was no telling what thoughts and assumptions were running through her head in that moment as she gestured for the girls to follow her out of the room with frantic hands. “I- uh – I’m – I didn’t realize we had a guest” she managed to say as the twins obediently came close enough to her that she could grab a hold of both their shoulders. She was still too much in shock for anger but Peter knew very well that it was coming. The open-door loophole was looking even more pathetic in the early morning light than it had the previous night and the boys were absolutely in for the lecture of their lives. “I’ll give you two a moment to compose yourselves,” she said finally, hands firmly gripping the still-grinning twins, “meet me in the kitchen when you’re decent. And hurry, school begins in an hour.” A bit of forced calmness was in her tone as she spoke to the boys and she turned away from the door without another word, both girls -still giggling, in tow.

                Silence descended on the two boys as the door clicked shut behind Mrs. Leeds. Neither boy moved. Peter was holding onto the desperate hope that this was all a hyper-realistic stress dream. There was no way this was actually happening. There was no _way_ he had actually snuck into his boyfriend’s room for a goodnight kiss and ended up accidentally falling asleep. There was no way Ned’s little sisters and mother had walked in on them. The universe couldn’t possibly hate him _that_ much.

                There was the sound of soft footsteps returning in the hallway and then a gentle pounding on the door. “Mom says you’d both better hurry up! Mrs. Parker’s on the phone right now looking for Peter!” Peter jerked up at the words, sitting up fully on the bed as guilt wracked through him. He hadn’t even thought about his aunt – she must have gone into his room to check if he was up and noticed his bed hadn’t been slept in. She must have been a frantic mess, thinking he’d not come home after patrol.

                Peter generally thought he was a good person but at that moment he felt like the largest jerk in the universe. “We’ll be out in a minute!” He called through the door as he stood up from the bed and dashed to the corner of the room where he had kicked the suit the night before. At least the Leeds had been distracted enough by the sight of him that they hadn’t noticed the bright, multi-million-dollar suit crumpled in the corner. The universe was capable of small mercies, he thought as he groped for his cellphone in the mess of fabric. His heart sank when he succeeded in pulling it out and saw that he had a flurry of unread texts and missed calls from May. His heart fell even further when he saw that there were several missed calls from Mr. Stark and even one from Happy. He must have really scared them.

                “Oh man,” he couldn’t help but groan as he turned back around, phone in hand. Ned was still lying on the floor, completely frozen. He hadn’t stirred at his sister’s voice or Peter’s and Peter was slightly concerned that the other boy might have legitimately gone into shock. He had never seen him awake and yet so silent. Peter felt another rush of guilt. This was mortifying to him but it had to have been even worse for Ned to have his own sisters and mother walk in. They hadn’t been doing anything truly wrong but Peter knew how it must have looked to see Ned and Peter, not even in his own clothing, wrapped together on the bed. Peter had never thought they’d be capable of topping that time the entire Academic Decathlon team had seen them at the pool, but this was definitely leagues beyond that. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to look Mrs. Leeds in the eye again and he couldn’t imagine how much worse it was for Ned to be dealing with the sheer mortification of the whole thing.

Peter walked over to the other boy and dropped to his knees, placing a hesitant hand on Ned’s shoulder. The other boy’s eyes were tightly shut - as if he could push away the morning by sheer will -but they flew open at Peter’s gentle touch. He didn’t say anything for a moment longer, making Peter feel a stab of actual panic – he really _couldn’t_ face this on his own but he might have to if Ned didn’t snap out of his shock – but then he opened his mouth to speak and Peter felt a slight rush of relief.

“Please pinch me so I wake up.” Ned whispered, staring up at Peter with wide, hopeful eyes. Peter just shook his head, squeezing Ned’s shoulder slightly in sympathy.

“Sorry, man. This is actually happening.” The words were bitter on Peter’s lips – God, how he wished the whole situation was all just an awful stress dream. He would have gone on a thousand field trips to the Compound with his school just for this entire morning to turn out to be a panic-induced nightmare. Ned groaned and shut his eyes again.

“Just kill me now. Before my mother does it.” He pleaded. “Put me out of my misery.” He added, moving his hands up to rub at his eyes.

“No way. You aren’t leaving me to deal with this mess alone.” Peter responded, poking at Ned until the other boy groaned again. “Get up before your mother comes in again.” He added as he stood up. He would have loved to just put on the suit and slip out the window but it would have been too cruel to just leave Ned to deal with the entire mess. Plus, with his luck, Mrs. Leeds or the twins would look out the window just in time to see Spider-Man slipping out of Ned’s window and truly flip out.

“You gotta let me put clothes on at least.” Ned said as he finally forced himself to sit up. “A button down, maybe. Mom probably won’t kill me if I’m wearing my Sunday clothes.” Peter would have argued with that logic – Mrs. Leeds was probably not in the right frame of mind to appreciate any clothing at the moment – but Ned’s words brought a horrible realization that hadn’t yet come to him. He didn’t have any clothes to change into. He would have to face down Ned’s family in borrowed clothes

He was going to have to go to _school_ in borrowed clothes. He was going have to go to school in clothes borrowed from _Ned_.

“Oh my God,” he whispered. He had been trying hard – incredibly, incredibly hard – not to entirely freak out at the whole situation but between Mrs. Leeds’s expression, May’s slew of frantic texts and calls that were still unanswered and the current, unfortunate situation with the clothes, he had finally reached his breaking point. “Oh my _God_. Holy shit, holy _shit!_ ” His outburst had Ned jumping onto his feet in alarm but Peter hardly noticed as the severity of their situation finally hit him.

He had stayed out far past the curfew he and May had agreed on. He had snuck into his boyfriend’s bedroom. He had stayed the _night_ in his boyfriend’s bedroom. He had broken just about every rule May had given him since he started dating Ned. And Ned’s mother had _seen_ them. She probably thought they’d done a lot more than fall asleep talking and Peter was going to have to wear borrowed clothes to try and convince her otherwise because he hadn’t intended to stay over at all and had snuck in wearing only his _Spider-Man_ costume.

                Peter wanted the earth to swallow him whole. He wanted aliens to come crashing from the sky hellbent on destroying New York. He wanted Mr. Toomes to come back in full Vulture gear. He wanted Ant Man to go super-sized again and toss him across an airport. Literally anything would be better than his current predicament. _Anything_.

                He felt Ned place a hesitant hand on his shoulder and barely resisted flinching. The other boy didn’t bother trying to say anything – there was _nothing_ short of the apocalypse itself that would improve this situation and they both knew it. “I don’t have any clothes.” He told Ned, his voice sounding slightly hollow. He didn’t know if the other boy had come to that realization yet or not but he felt it was important to say regardless. “I have to go out to your kitchen and face your mother and also probably May because there’s absolutely no way she isn’t almost here already. And then probably go to school in them too. Which means everyone at school is going to notice and talk about it.” Peter could already nearly feel the stares that were undoubtedly waiting for them. This was going to be mortifying.

                “Look on the bright side,” Ned finally spoke up, his hand lightly squeezing Peter’s shoulder. “We’re absolutely about to be grounded from everything for life so May probably won’t let you go to the field trip on Friday.” It was cold comfort and not at all helpful. But Ned had at least tried and Peter couldn’t help but turn to give the other boy a weak smile in response. Ned squeezed his shoulder again before dropping his hand to reach for Peter’s hand instead. “We better go face the music before Mom sends Mads and Jules to break down the door.” Peter barely held back a shudder at the thought of the twins returning to force them from the room. Even with his super strength, Peter was no match for the two girls when they were determined.

                “Don’t you want to change first?” Peter asked even as Ned began moving towards the door, still clutching Peter’s hand as though for support. Ned turned back to smile slightly at him.

                “If you don’t get to change your clothes, I’m not going to either. Solidarity in pajamas and all that.” Peter couldn’t help but smile at Ned’s declaration. It was a very sweet gesture, especially because walking out in obviously still in their pajamas was a sure-fire way to get Mrs. Leeds even more angry. If that was even possible, at this point. Peter honestly didn’t know if there was a parental threshold for anger or not. Still, knowing that if he allowed himself to overthink it he would never let Ned or himself leave the room regardless of their attire, Peter allowed himself to be pulled to the door and outside the safety of Ned’s room.

                The hallway was abnormally quiet for the bustling home and Peter couldn’t help but feel even more on edge as they inched their way down towards the front of the apartment. As they approached the living room the silence seemed to grow thicker. Peter was used to having to block out the sound of the girls chattering with each other as soft music or one of Mrs. Leeds’ podcasts floated in from the kitchen – she was always listening to something as she cooked – and the silence was deafening. He could hear faint sounds from the kitchen, of course – the soft sound of someone breathing, the scrape of chairs, the rustle of somebody’s clothing – but that was due to his enhanced hearing and served only to make the absence of normal noise more stark.

                “We are so dead.” Ned whispered before they had fully entered the living room – the kitchen and living room of the Leeds’ apartment was separated only by a low breakfast bar and the boys both knew that the moment they left the relative protection of the hallway, there would be no escape from Mrs. Leeds’ view. Odds were she was watching for them already. Peter didn’t say anything – he felt rather like his tongue had been weighed down with lead and he was pretty sure if he managed to even lift it he wouldn’t be able to say anything worth the effort – but he gave a gentle squeeze to Ned’s hand before dropping int entirely. He desperately still wanted to hold it – he craved the silent comfort Ned’s touch always gave him – but he was pretty sure one wasn’t supposed to enter these types of situations holding hands or anything remotely couple-like. They were in enough trouble as it was without giving Mrs. Leeds any reminders of their relationship status. “So dead.” Ned repeated before closing his eyes and taking the last step into the open living room, Peter just half a step behind him.

                Peter spotted Mrs. Leeds immediately – she was sitting at the kitchen table, fastidiously studying the coffee cup set in front of her. The twins were nowhere in sight – either banished into their room for the duration of the conversation or already sent off to school, Peter wasn’t sure which. Neither was their non-appearance very important to him when he caught sight of who was actually present. Peter had been expecting his aunt to show up – had assumed she would have jumped into her car the moment she got confirmation that Peter was indeed at the Leeds’ – but that didn’t make the sight of her, already dressed in her nursing scrubs and sitting primly at the table next to Mrs. Leeds, any easier to take in.

                She was sitting ram-rod straight with her hands folded neatly in front of her, her face completely blank even as she noticed the boys’ approach. Peter was unfortunately familiar with the posture – that had been the stance she’d adopted when they had sat down to talk about him being Spider-Man – it was the stance that meant she had been worried sick and was now beyond furious. It was a stance that meant he would be so grounded he might never see anything but the walls of his bedroom and the walls of his school again.

                It was a terrifying sight in an already frightening situation.

                “Boys. Come in here, please.” She called and her voice dragged Peter from his thoughts. He hadn’t even realized that both he and Ned had stopped dead in their tracks at the edge of the living room. He didn’t want to come any closer – a feeling that only intensified when Mrs. Leeds looked up from her cup, her expression thunderous – but he and Ned both knew that prolonging the inevitable would only make it worse in the long run. With very heavy hearts, they shuffled into the kitchen until they were both standing in front of the table. “Take a seat.” May directed, her words clipped with a tense kind of forced calm. Peter and Ned obeyed without a word, taking their respective spots across from their respective parent. They were close enough that Ned was able to brush his hand briefly across Peter’s knee in an attempt at a reassuring gesture as they settled into their seats.

The heavy silence fell back onto the kitchen as both boys waited for the lecture to begin. Peter folded his hands tightly on his lap and then unfolded them just to fold them again. He couldn’t quite keep still and had to resist the urge to squirm on his seat as May and Mrs. Leeds stared at them, their gazes piercing. Peter wondered if they were waiting for the boys to break the silence and if any words had come to his lips, he undoubtedly would have let them slip out. He would have done anything to break the stifling silence but no words came to him. There was nothing he could say in front of Mrs. Leeds and very little in front of May alone that would have excused staying out all night. Ned next to him must have felt the same as, although he was nervously twiddling his fingers around, he also didn’t say anything.

“Well,” It was Mrs. Leeds this time, who broke the silence, her voice rushing down like a sharp blade to cut through it. Peter barely resisted flinching as his fingers clenched tightly together under the table. “I honestly don’t know where to start.” Peter looked down at her words, another flash of guilt running through him. He’d gotten lectures from Mrs. Leeds before, of course. He and Ned had once broken all the living room lamps in an ill-conceived nerf gun fight and that had resulted in a lot of missed allowance and a month’s grounding for the both of them. It had also been the angriest he’d ever seen Ned’s mother. At least before now. “Do you have something to say, May?” Mrs. Leeds opened the floor for Peter’s aunt and he couldn’t quite force away the flinch even as his gaze remained resolutely fixed on his fingers. He was holding them tight enough that the knuckles had gone bone-white.

“Oh, I don’t know, Althea.” May still sounded carefully calm but Peter could hear the steal underneath. It would have been better if either of them had started yelling. Peter would have been able to deal with yelling. The disappointment that colored her voice behind the calm facade was so much worse than anger. “I never thought I’d have to deal with this.” There was an honesty in May’s voice that made him wince. He had never thought they would have to deal with this either.  “I thought we had an understanding, Peter?” There was hurt in her voice now and Peter clamped his fingers even harder to resist flinching. “I don’t understand why either of you thought this was okay or even remotely appropriate.” She continued and Peter saw Ned flinch out of the corner of his eye and felt his guilt grow even more sharply. It had been Peter that had gotten them into this mess – he should have just gone home.

“It’s my fault,” Peter said, forcing his mouth open so that the words could fall out. “I asked Ned if I could come over because I couldn’t get the trip out of my head –“ Mentioning the trip must have been confusing for Mrs. Leeds but there was no way Peter could have explained it more without revealing why a trip to the Compound was so stressful for him – “I meant to just say goodnight but I fell asleep. I swear nothing else happened,” he couldn’t help but add the last bit, a blush creeping onto his cheeks as he forced his gaze up away from his own hands and towards his aunt. His aunt’s face had at least lost some of its terrifying blankness as she frowned at him.

“I know we broke just about every rule and that I scared you and I’m so, so sorry, May. Mrs. Leeds,” Peter continued, turning his gaze briefly towards the other woman. “But it was all my idea and Ned really shouldn’t be in trouble for it –“

“Ned let you into his room, Peter.” Mrs. Leeds cut in, “even if it was your idea, he went along with it. You both are equally to blame.” There was a softness in her voice despite her obvious anger, as if Peter’s heartfelt apology had cut through her wrath some.

“Mom,” it was Ned’s turn to speak, his voice small, “I’m really, really sorry too. But I swear we just tal-“ Mrs. Leeds held up a hand and Ned immediately fell silent. Mrs. Leeds was the only person Peter had ever seen capable of quieting his boyfriend so thoroughly. Had it not been such an inopportune time, he might have asked her how she did it.

“Whether or not you two were –“ she paused momentarily, searching for an adequate word, “intimate,” she settled on and Peter felt his cheeks blossom red. He fastidiously did not turn to look at Ned but he was pretty sure the boy must have looked just as mortified as he did. “or not isn’t the concern here. We –“ she gestured towards May, who nodded in turn, her hands still folded before her – “only care that you went behind our backs and snuck around. We trusted you boys.” She added and Peter’s gaze fell back to his lap, shame mingling anew with the embarrassment.

“Althea’s right. Neither of us care if you two are having se-“

“Please don’t finish that sentence,” Peter mumbled as the flush on his cheeks spread across the rest of his face until he undoubtedly represented a very ripe tomato. He could sense the eye roll in his aunt’s voice as she continued speaking.

“Oh, you can sneak out to visit your boyfriend in the middle of the night but can stand your aunt saying ‘sex’?” The sarcasm was evident in her voice. “Too bad. You snuck out and then stayed overnight in your boyfriend’s room completely unsupervised. You can stand to hear the Talk.” Peter didn’t bother protesting and neither did Ned, although Peter was pretty sure that, just like him, Ned would have probably much rather endured being yelled at. May, sensing that her point had been made, began speaking again. “If you are having sex – and I’m not saying you are or even that you are close to that point in your relationship – we would much rather you both be honest and upfront with us about it then go behind our backs. Even if its awkward to talk about it, I’d rather you be honest than go behind my back and leave me thinking the worst had happened to you.” The last part was directed to Peter, although May was still couching it in ambiguous terms. Peter, despite his obvious embarrassment, found himself nodding in agreement.

“I agree completely.” Mrs. Leeds added. “Even if it’s not sexual at all –if you just need to come over and see Ned, Peter, I’d rather you come through the front door. And I’d rather you’d do the same, Ned. And if it _is_ sexual, whenever you reach that part of your relationship, I want you to know that you can talk to us. I’d rather you come to me or May or even your father–“ Peter could feel Ned’s slight flinch at his father’s name and he couldn’t blame the other boy– he had probably been holding on to the slightly desperate hope that this whole debacle would stay between them and his mother had just dashed it against the rocks, “so that we can help you with getting supplies and –“

“Mom, _please_ ,” Peter couldn’t help but feel relief when Ned interrupted his mother, “we aren’t close to that. After this conversation, we probably will _never_ be close to that, so please can we move on? We promise we won’t sneak around or anything again.” There was a pleading tone in Ned’s voice and Peter found himself nodding along vigorously. At this point, he would willingly never hold Ned’s hand again if it meant ending this part of the conversation and moving on to the punishment portion of the morning.

Despite the seriousness of the conversation, there was amusement in May’s voice when she spoke up again. “I think they get the point, Althea. We’ll drop it, for now.” The last part of her sentence was ominous and Peter just knew he was going to be subjected to his aunt placing sexual health pamphlets on his pillow for just about all of the foreseeable future. “Let’s talk punishment, then. I say grounded, two months.” Peter flinched slightly – he’d never been grounded for more than a few weeks before. He didn’t argue about it though – he knew he probably deserved worse.

“Sounds fair.” Mrs. Leeds agreed, her tone falsely cheerful. “Two months no video games or internet except for school or education-related things – I will check the data on your phone Edward so don’t even try it -, limited television. And you are only allowed to go to and from school and Academic Decathlon practice unless given permission otherwise. That work for you, May?”

“Sounds perfect.” Peter’s aunt responded, and Peter looked up to catch her eye. That couldn’t include Spider-Man, could it? Peter couldn’t just put up the suit for two months. May’s face betrayed nothing and Peter dreaded having to ask her later. That was not a conversation he was looking forward to.

There was a silver lining, however. Peter highly doubted the field trip to the Compound on Friday counted as school. Mrs. Leeds had refused to let Ned go on some field trips in the past, when they had gotten in serious trouble, and May would most likely do the same, in the interest of fairness. The Universe was truly capable of small mercies.

“Except,” Oh,  _hell_  no. May had a glint in her eye, the kind that spelled nothing but trouble for Peter. “I think they should still be allowed to go on Friday.” She continued looking at Peter as she spoke, and Peter felt his heart drop. “They worked very hard academically for those slots and I already told Mr. Stark that Peter would be going. He’s taking a liking to him through the internship and I wouldn’t want to ruin that.” Let Mrs. Leeds disagree, he silently begged as he turned to look at Ned’s mother, hoping to see denial on her face.

Mrs. Leeds was frowning as she considered May’s suggestion. Normally that was a bad sign but Peter was desperately holding on to the hope that the frown meant she would not be swayed to May's thinking. “I suppose the one trip’s fine. It is a good opportunity for them.” Peter’s heart fell as May smiled slightly before standing up.

“Well, I’d say it was nice visiting but that was honestly terrible and better not happen again. Come on, Peter. I’ll drop you off at the apartment so you can get changed before your first class really gets going.” Peter risked a glance at Ned as he reluctantly stood up. The other boy scrunched his face in sympathy but said nothing. There was nothing he could say, with his mother across the table, anyway. Peter knew that but it still made his heart sink even further into his stomach as he turned to follow May out of the apartment.

He took back whatever nice things he had said about the Universe. It was a total, unforgiving monster that liked nothing more than seeing Peter suffer in the most humiliating ways possible. Not only was he in the most trouble he had been in his entire life – excluding Spider-Man activities - he was still going to have to deal with Flash and the rest of his classmates at the Compound on Friday. With Mr. Stark. Who was undoubtedly just as angry at his lapse of judgment as May was and would probably derive all sorts of embarrassing horribleness to punish him.

Peter must have been absolutely terrible in a past life. He must have kicked puppies and pushed old ladies. There was no other explanation for the utter awfulness that was his luck.

His morning had been awful but Peter already knew that Friday was going to be significantly worse. Friday was going to be the _absolute_ worst.  


	2. Chapter 2

                Peter’s week had dragged on painfully slow. May and Mrs. Leeds had both been true to their word about the grounding – he wasn’t allowed to play any video games or even go on the computer unless it was for homework, he could only watch television with his aunt and even his cellphone use was limited to school hours and emergencies only. He had to walk directly back from school and neither Ned nor Peter were allowed to walk all the way to either’s apartment. Although May had not outright forbade Spider-Man patrols, his curfew had been cut to 10 and Karen had strict orders to call May immediately if Peter didn’t make it back in time or went outside of the preapproved patrol zones.

                It had been made worse by MJ finding out – she had known something was wrong the moment she had seen both Ned and Peter at school, blushing red at the sight of each other and decidedly _not_ touching even as Ned slipped a large brown bag with the suit to him. It wasn’t that Peter was upset with Ned – he really did feel like it was all his fault – it was just that the very memory of May and Mrs. Leeds trying to discuss intimacy with the boys had left Peter mortified and he hadn’t yet been able to look Ned in the eye without risking the very real possibility of turning into a tomato. MJ had forced the story out of them and – rather than being a kind, supportive friend - had proceeded to terrorize them with knowing, definitely amused smirks, sly jokes, and quite a few drawings of both boys definitely in crisis. The only benefit was that she refused to tell anyone else, even when the Academic Decathlon team had thrown a collective fit when the two were excused on time from practice while the rest had to stay.

                The absolute worst part, however, had been the ways May had come up for giving him the Talk without actually forcing Peter to talk. Just as Peter had suspected, May had come back from her shift with a whole array of pamphlets and papers and she had been fastidiously placing them in places Peter had no choice but to look at them. She had taped a pamphlet about discussing intimacy with your partner onto the fridge. She had set one about practicing safe sex on top of the textbooks he’d left on the dining room table. She had slipped a “Know the Facts” leaflet targeted towards LGBTQ teens into the bag that he kept his suit in. She had placed a small, printed-out instructions page on how to use condoms on his pillow, accompanied by a small box that Peter hadn’t even looked at before opening his nightstand drawer and shoving it deep into the back.

Peter knew, deep down, that she wasn’t doing it to punish him but because she cared and wanted him to have a safe, healthy relationship with Ned. It didn’t make the utter mortification he felt any better. It was worse than when Uncle Ben and she had sat him down and explained it all the first time because now it was accompanied with the assumption that he’d be actually engaging in it at some point in the near future. And that was more than Peter could handle.

Still, if Peter had a choice, he would deal with his room flooded with all of his aunt’s pamphlets and print outs like the Hogwarts letters in _Harry Potter_ , if it meant he could get out of the field trip that was fast approaching.

Peter would have done just about anything to avoid the Compound regardless, because he just knew Mr. Stark was waiting to give him the lecture of a lifetime about not using the suit for non-Spider-Man related activities and especially not for sneaking into a boy’s window in the middle of the night. Adding the fact that he’d be going with nineteen of his classmates, including the boy whose window he had slid into, and that he had to get up a full two hours early to make the bus on time, made him all the more reluctant to go on the trip.

So when his alarm rang out on the day of terror, Peter was tempted to refuse to get out of bed. He could pretend he was sick, although he hadn’t had so much as a cough since the bite; maybe he could fake a Spider-Man injury. He was even momentarily tempted to leave the apartment, wait for May to get to work, and just go back home. He was already in trouble anyway; a little more anger could hardly make that much of a difference.

It was really, _really_ tempting. But the idea of leaving Ned to deal with the whole field trip alone – leaving him to deal with Mr. Stark alone – combined with the disappointed look he knew May would wear when she got the call from the school – had Peter cursing quietly as he slipped out of bed and went hunting for some clean clothing in his closet. It wasn’t even light outside yet, being only five, which did nothing to assuage Peter’s bad mood. He had gotten home at exactly ten the night before and been in bed by 10:30, so he should have gotten enough sleep. Instead, his mind had refused to do anything but keep playing out the worst possible scenarios of the day and he had not fallen asleep until well after midnight.

So Peter was not only dreading the day, he was also extremely tired and more than a little annoyed with just about everything. He dressed quickly in the first vaguely matching clothes he could find – a pair of blue jeans he’d only worn once that week and a t-shirt May had gotten him for Christmas that had “I make horrible science puns but only periodically” written in large block letters. To appease his aunt, he threw on a long-sleeved plaid shirt to abate the early morning chill before grabbing his backpack and slipping out of his room.

May wasn’t even awake yet – she had another thirty minutes until her alarm went off – so Peter moved silently down the hall and into the kitchen. He was meeting with Ned in front of Delmar’s in ten minutes so he didn’t have time to make coffee or actual breakfast so he just grabbed two packs of blueberry pop-tarts and a banana to appease May before snatching his phone on the counter, pulling it from the charger rather carelessly. Normally, he kept his phone by his bedside table but because he was grounded, May made him leave it in the kitchen once he got home from patrol. Peter hated it – he was too accustomed to scrolling through Instagram before bed, even on the late patrol nights – but there was no way he was going to fight his aunt on any part of his punishment.

                Ned must have already collected his own phone – the Leeds had a similar rule about phones while grounded – because he’d already texted Peter that he was on his way to Delmar’s. Peter frowned as the stone in the pit of his stomach grew even heavier and shoved half a pop-tart into his mouth to avoid thinking about it. Part of him wanted to just climb back and bed and leave someone else to deal with everything, but he knew it wouldn’t be fair to Ned and there was no way he was going to leave his boyfriend to handle Mr. Stark all alone. Even if he really, really wanted to.

                Peter finished the rest of his first pop-tart and threw the rest of them into his backpack as he moved back into the living room and towards the front door. It took him less time than he wanted to slip his shoes on and slide out of the front door. Normally he would have called out a goodbye to his aunt, but he didn’t want to wake her and they had already agreed that Peter would text her when he was on the bus, so he just closed the door and locked it quietly behind him before making his way out of the apartment building.

                The sun still hadn’t come up as Peter made his way down the relatively quiet street. It made the shadows cast from the shop and street lights a little longer and, had it been just a few years earlier, would have made Peter hasten his step. Now though, accustomed to all things that went bump in the night and secure in the knowledge that he was likely the most dangerous person on the streets at the moment, Peter took as much time as he could walking to Delmar’s. He briefly toyed with the idea of accidently-on-purpose missing the bus by running late, but he knew there was no way May would think it was an accident and he didn’t want to get into more trouble.

                Ned was standing just outside Delmar’s, on the corner they always met at. He looked just as uneasy about the whole situation as Peter did but he tried valiantly to plaster a reassuring smile on his face when he noticed Peter walking towards him. Peter felt some of the weight lift off him – this field trip was going to be an utter disaster, but at least he had Ned beside him to pull him through. Besides, they were handling the whole getting caught and grounded for two months thing fairly well; certainly they could handle Mr. Stark and their classmates.

                Maybe, anyway. Maybe they could handle it.

                They probably couldn’t, but they would both try and that was the important part.

                Ned didn’t say anything to Peter as he approached, just silently reached out for Peter’s hand and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. Despite his trepidation, Peter found himself smiling softly at Ned and squeezing his hand back as they began walking. The walk was short, the streets nearly as silent as they ever were in the bustling city, and neither boy bothered breaking it even as the school bus came into sight. Unlike the last field trip, Peter and Ned were the very first students to arrive and they greeted an excited Mr. Harrington with half-hearted smiles.

Mr. Harrington, oblivious as ever, didn’t seem to take in either boy’s lack of enthusiasm as he launched into a step-by-step description of their trip itinerary. Peter probably should have been paying attention – any and all information that could prepare him for the upcoming hellscape could be nothing but helpful – but each word weighed on him like stones and he forced himself to focus on all the other sounds surrounding him to drown out his teacher’s voice. It wasn’t like Mr. Harrington knew at what points Mr. Stark would show up – there was no way the man wouldn’t make an appearance – to embarrass Peter to death anymore than he knew at what times Flash would decide to take snide shots at Peter. No other parts of the field trip even really mattered.

Ned, Peter could tell, wasn’t paying any more attention than he was. Instead, he was rubbing small circles on the back of Peter’s hand and sending covert glances to the end of the street, checking for the arrival of any of their classmates who might save them. Had it been any other teacher, they undoubtedly would have noticed and taken offense to their lack of attention, but Mr. Harrington just continued droning on, blissfully unaware. Peter was often grateful for Mr. Harrington’s obliviousness – no other teacher would have accepted all of his Spider-Man related absences with the same total lack of suspicion – but he was especially happy for it now. The last thing he needed heading into the Compound was yet another adult angry with him.

Fortunately for the boys, it didn’t take much longer for other students to begin showing up. MJ, as usual, was the first one to appear. She raised her eyebrow at the boys, the only indication of her surprise she allowed to show on her face, before smoothly cutting into Mr. Harrington’s monologue with the first of what was sure to be many questions. Whether or not she did it because she pitied the boys – there was no way she didn’t notice their utter lack of attention- Peter didn’t know but he shot her a grateful look anyway as Mr. Harrington’s attention immediately fell onto her.

The rest of the students followed quickly after MJ. The entire Academic Decathlon team had made the cut and Sally and Charles were the next to arrive, followed by Abraham and Cindy. Betty from the school news came next, her gaze fully locked onto her cellphone. Seymour followed after and then the rest of the students in a steady trickle until – just before MJ and Mr. Harrington were about to call roll, Flash sauntered in, a broad smirk already in place. Peter glanced at him and immediately looked away, a slight tightening of his hand over Ned’s the only reaction he would allow himself. It was fruitless anyway – the moment Flash was close enough to be heard, he zoned in on Peter.

“Surprised you showed up, Penis.” He taunted quietly, careful not to let Mr. Harrington hear. Peter felt himself tense and squeezed Ned’s hand again, this time in warning. The last thing they needed was for Ned to lose his temper over some stupid insult from Flash. The other boy seemed to understand this as well, as, although Ned shot a dark look at Flash, he didn’t say anything. “What with everyone about to find out you were lying about knowing Tony Stark and everything.” Peter turned away from the other boy, refusing to respond. Flash had _seen_ Happy come and pick him up the time Mr. Stark decided Peter needed to be flashy about his internship. If he was too stubborn to let his wrong ideas go, there was little Peter could do to change his mind. And he had bigger things to worry about than some dime-a-dozen bully and his bag of over-played insults.

Like the fact that Mr. Harrington was now allowing students onto the bus, which meant there was very little time left between Peter and the inevitably terrible fieldtrip. For a brief moment, Peter considered faking sick – if he tried hard enough, he was almost sure he could make himself vomit and if he turned around in time, he could get all over Flash – but then MJ, who had been first on the bus, tapped loudly on her window to get Peter’s attention and he knew his chance had passed. MJ would never let him just _leave._ And Flash would probably actually try to murder him if Peter got sick all over him. And he couldn’t leave Ned all alone, anyway. With a barely concealed sigh, Peter forced himself to step onto the bus, still holding Ned’s hand to ensure the other boy followed after.

He trusted Ned, he really did, but after their last field trip he could hardly afford to let him within range of Flash without him right next to him. They didn’t need an angry Flash added to their list of awful things on this field trip; a cocky one was already bad enough. Ned, seeming to sense the warning in Peter’s tight grasp, willingly followed him onto the bus without a word to Flash and they managed to slide into the seat behind MJ – Peter wasn’t sure how she had managed to keep it empty for them but he assumed her generally terrifying glare had probably helped – without incident.

“I hate him,” Ned mumbled to Peter as they watched Flash walk past – he might have tried to sit behind them but a sharp glance from MJ had him continuing to the end of the bus with only a smirk at the two boys. Peter patted Ned’s knee in sympathy.

“He’s just hoping to get back some face after the whole “thought you guys were just friends” fiasco last field trip.” Peter whispered to him as Mr. Harrington climbed onto the bus and sat down in the seat across from MJ. Peter’s words were true – Flash had gotten mocked quite a bit for that special bit of stupidity and there was no way he wasn’t going to try to get some recompense this time around – but they didn’t make him feel better. All week his mind had been coming up with all the worst-case scenarios about Flash in the Compound, about Flash meeting Mr. Stark, about Flash and Mr. Stark working together to make Peter’s high school career a complete nightmare. He had no doubt that those two meeting would be the absolute worst thing. Which of course, meant that it was absolutely going to happen. Even if Mr. Harrington had warned all the students that Mr. Stark hardly ever participated in a meet-and-greet for these tours and that they shouldn’t get their hopes up for seeing any of the other, newly pardoned Avengers either, Peter had no doubt Mr. Stark was going to make an appearance. And thus he would meet Flash and they would work together to make the whole situation so much worse.

Because the Universe hated him.

“I can’t wait to see him have to eat his words.” Ned grumbled, before turning to Peter. “It’s the one highlight of this trip.” He continued, a little hastily, as if trying to reassure Peter that he also knew this trip was going to be a disaster. Peter smiled in response. It probably was going to be the one highlight – undoubtedly quickly followed by a bunch of lows that would make him want to dig a hole in Central Park and never resurface. “It’s going to be fine, Peter,” Ned added, bumping his shoulder lightly into Peter’s and offering a small smile to him. “At least, no worse than – other things –“ They had both collectively decided to never speak about Ned’s sisters walking in on them aloud which meant they had come up with some creative ways at alluding to it. Peter could practically feel the warmth of Ned’s embarrassment.

“Nothing is worse than _other_ things,” Peter responded, “doesn’t mean Mr. Stark and Flash aren’t going to give it their best shot.” His words were followed by him dropping his head onto Ned’s shoulder, burying his face as well as he could in the softness of Ned’s shirt. Ned wrapped a gentle arm around Peter’s waist and pulled him slightly closer without saying anything. Briefly, Peter considered dozing off – he was quite tired and he knew that exhaustion would make everything significantly worse than it was already destined to be – but a quick, bright flash had him sitting back up quickly, pulling himself instinctively away from Ned.

MJ was smirking at them from behind a camera, half-twisted in her seat so they could see her. Peter’s face flushed pink and he groaned before dropping his head back onto Ned’s shoulder. He and Ned were still rather jumpy from getting caught and MJ had been taking advantage of that all week. Yesterday, it had been Ned who she had startled, using a surprisingly accurate impression of Mrs. Leeds. “Ms. Alvarez asked me and Betty to get some pictures for the yearbook,” MJ’s voice was dripping with feigned innocence and Peter simply groaned again as Ned moved his arm from his waist to bat MJ’s camera away. MJ had joined the yearbook committee for the express purpose of capturing the most embarrassing photos of everyone in their class, he was pretty sure.

“No one’s going to want to see that picture, MJ.” Ned retorted as he wrapped his arm around Peter again.

“Sure they will. I’m nominating you both for ‘Best Couple’ this year.” There was mockery in her tone now and Peter knew without lifting his head that she was definitely smirking.

“Of course you are.” He grumbled without lifting his head. It would be the perfect excuse to torture them with impromptu photographs whenever they did anything and undoubtedly making them jump more. She delighted in their embarrassment after all.

“Of course I am.” MJ parroted, sounding way too smug in Peter’s opinion, “you guys are disgustingly cute together and if I don’t nominate you, some even worse straight couple will win again.” She was speaking matter-of-factly now and Peter couldn’t help the small smile that he hid by burying his face further into Ned’s shirt. Ned himself was laughing quietly, his entire chest rumbling slightly with it and jostling Peter in a not unpleasant way.

“We can’t let the straights win.” He agreed before laughing harder in response to Peter halfheartedly swatting him.

“Don’t encourage her!” He grumbled and this time he could absolutely _feel_ MJ’s smirk. She was going to make this trip even worse if Ned encouraged her to take pictures of them every few minutes. Even if the idea of being known as the “Best Couple” made him feel warm inside, Peter knew it would bring them nothing but trouble on the field trip if MJ purposely brought attention to them. Especially because Mr. Stark had definitely been filled in by May on exactly where he had spent the night with the Spider suit. Peter absolutely did not need anyone drawing attention to _that_ in front of the man.

MJ might have continued teasing them – she was not known for letting opportunities to tease Peter mercilessly go easily – but Mr. Harrington had climbed onto the bus after the last of the students and was calling them all to attention. With a little huff – there was no way MJ was going to let him sleep on Ned without taking a million pictures for blackmail and Yearbook purposes – Peter raised his head off Ned’s shoulder and sat up enough that he could see his teacher.

“Alright kids, I know we are all excited for this wonderful opportunity to see the Avenger’s Compound –“ light cheers interrupted Mr. Harrington’s words and Peter barely bit back more groans. It wouldn’t be fair to bring everyone’s mood down just because he knew he was going to be miserable, but it was still hard not to make a face at the mention of the compound. Even Ned lightly pressing his fingers into his hip wasn’t enough to lighten the feeling of dread that was beginning to simmer under Peter’s skin. “Yes, I know it’s awesome! And you’ve all earned it!” Mr. Harrington cheered with the rest of the students, his grin wide as he awkwardly fist bumped the air with one hand, the other tightly closed around a stack of crisp papers he had taken from his bag. “But we’ve got a few guidelines that I’ve got to pass out before we head out. I want you all to read them before we get to the Compound. There will be a worker to greet us outside the Compound who will give us badges to enter the building and go over additional guidelines so please, if you have any questions, make sure you write them down so you can ask the guide.”

There was some groaning following Mr. Harrington’s words but Peter hardly paid them any mind. He was too busy being hit by a sudden realization. He had forgotten all about access badges. He had one, of course, but it was keyed into both the more public section of the Compound, used for S.H.I.E.L.D. training and government officials who were a part of the Accords, and the private section that was the Avengers’ living quarters and there was no way he could use it in front of his classmates – not when F.R.I.D.A.Y. was programmed to greet everyone with access to the private section by name. He didn’t think Mr. Stark would want the story that he was an intern for the actual Avengers, and not just for Stark Industries – even though it was technically true – getting out to a bunch of a high-schoolers. It would be another media storm if people thought an underage teen was working on high-tech weaponry. But Happy had told him there was a strict policy of no reissues when he had first given the badge to Peter and he doubted Mr. Stark would be feeling charitable enough to bend the rules for Peter now. He didn’t know how it hadn’t crossed his mind earlier – or Mr. Stark’s for that matter – but it was too late to matter now. He was _screwed_.

He threw his head back against the seat and groaned pitiably. Ned turned to him in alarm even as he reached out a hand to collect their copies of the guideline from Mr. Harrington. “What is it?” He whispered as their teacher passed by, oblivious as ever. Peter squeezed his eyes shut before responding.

“My pass.” He grumbled back. “It’s keyed into the private quarters and there’s no way Mr. Stark would let me get a new one just for this trip. Which means everyone’s going to be wondering why F.R.I.D.A.Y. greets me differently.” Peter felt Ned place a comforting hand on his knee but didn’t bother opening his eyes even as the other boy began to speak.

“I’m sure he will make an exception – didn’t he promise you he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize your identity?” Ned had made sure to drop his voice low enough that only Peter’s enhanced hearing could pick up the end of his sentence – it was a skill he had acquired over the months since he had seen Peter in the suit and Peter appreciated it, even if it didn’t reassure him much. “Did you even grab your normal pass?” He added, which was a fair point. Peter opened his eyes slightly, suddenly feeling hopeful. He didn’t keep the pass on him normally, because Happy had verbally beat security guidelines into him and he was terrified of someone trying to pickpocket him on the subway and taking it or of losing his backpack with it in it. He only carried it when he knew he was going to the Compound and he hadn’t been back there since his run in with the Black Widow. He definitely hadn’t thought of grabbing it before he left – if he didn’t have the badge with him, he couldn’t be forced to use it in front of his classmates.

Peter made grabby hands at Ned and the other boy snorted slightly as he bent and picked up Peter’s backpack for him, well acquainted with even the strangest of Peter’s gestures. Rather than giving the bag to Peter, as he had expected him to, Ned reached his own hand into Peter’s bag and fumbled around in the back pocket. Peter had to focus on not biting his lip as he watched Ned.

“I don’t feel it,” the other boy whispered to him and Peter felt himself unclench slightly in relief. “Wait, there’s something fabricy?” Ned’s voice was questioning as he pulled his hand out. Peter’s heart skipped as his unease returned at the familiar sight of his Iron Man lanyard. Dangling from the end of it, as always, was a pristine Stark Industries ID. A bright sticky note was stuck to it and Peter couldn’t help but grimace as he took in his aunt’s messy scrawl. _Thought you’d need this!_ It read in a deceptively cheerful blue, followed by a heart. It was the perfect topping for Peter’s own personal nightmare.

 “Oh man,” Ned let out, his voice low, as he took in the badge and note. Peter barely resisted groaning loudly as Ned shoved the note and badge back into his bag. He banged his head against the seat once more for emphasis.

“I can’t win.” He moaned without opening his eyes. Ned made some sort of sympathetic noise as he placed Peter’s backpack back on the bus floor, next to his own. “I really can’t win.” Peter repeated, his eyes still scrunched closed. He felt Ned place a sympathetic hand on his back but didn’t bother opening his eyes.

“It’ll be alright. I’m sure Mr. Stark told F.R.I.D.A.Y. to be cool about it,” Ned tried but Peter could hear the doubt in his voice. The likelihood that Mr. Stark would be doing anything to make the day easier for Peter was really low and they both knew that. Even in the small chance that he did, the universe was surely going to find a way for it to backfire. Peter couldn’t _win._

“I’m just going to try to sleep,” Peter mumbled dejectedly. “Maybe if I’m lucky the bus will get a flat or aliens will try to take over the city again.” Both were equally viable options in New York City. Ned didn’t have a response to that, but he moved his hand off Peter’s knee to grab his hand again and Peter took some comfort in the warmth of Ned’s fingers tangled with his. He didn’t even bother letting out a half-hearted complaint when another one of MJ’s flashes went off. Someone might as well document his misery at this point.

Peter fell into an uneasy doze, not quite calm enough to fall into a proper sleep, and the hours of the trip passed by in a blur. It didn’t seem to have been nearly enough time before he was woken up, bleary-eyed, by the bus coming to a stop in front of the Compound’s imposing security gates. Peter was tempted to close his eyes again and ignore the world around him but all the other students were cheering in excitement and craning up to get their first glimpse of the compound. Peter couldn’t even pretend to sleep with that amount of noise.

“Just end me now.” He mumbled to Ned who was waking up beside him. The other boy, slow to consciousness as he ever was, just grumbled something indecipherable back as he sat up straight. Peter could see the slight impression of the window left from where Ned had been pressed against it and the sight of a sleepy-eyed Ned was almost enough to make him forget his troubles.

“Ready to get busted, Penis?”

_Almost._

Peter forced himself not to turn around at the sound of Flash’s loud voice behind him. Ned’s sleepiness fled away as he straightened up to glare at Flash over Peter’s shoulder, apparently unconcerned with Peter’s evident determination to ignore the boy behind him. Quickly, before he could say anything, Peter placed a warning hand on Ned’s knee and lightly shook his head when Ned glanced at him. He made a face but relaxed slightly into his seat with an obvious air of reluctance.

“Guess we know who wears the pants, huh?” Flash sneered and Peter felt heat flare up inside him. Instinctively, he tightened his grip on Ned’s knee as he forced himself not to turn. He wanted nothing more than to lay into Flash about all the things that were _incredibly_ wrong with his comment, but it was far more important to not make this trip even worse than it was already turning out to be than it was to correct Flash on everything slightly homophobic and sexist he was undoubtedly going to say. He was just a stupid teenager, anyway. Ned had tensed up under Peter’s hand and he was full on glaring at Flash again but he didn’t say anything. A little mercy that undoubtedly took a lot of restraint.

“Flash, sit back down until we come to a full stop,” Mr. Harrington called from his seat behind the bus driver. Apparently, he hadn’t heard anything the other boy had said but Peter was still grateful that he had at least noticed the other boy get up. Flash probably smirked at them before he flounced back to his seat but Peter obstinately refused to look back.

“One hit, man. Just one.” Ned suggested darkly and Peter squeezed his knee again.

“No.” He whispered back and Ned made a face. The other boy knew, of course, why Peter would never hit Flash – he was certainly a jerk but he was mostly harmless and Peter would never use his strength against someone who couldn’t really fight back just because he said rude things.

“ _I_ could take the swing.” Ned offered as the bus finally slid into its allotted spot. Peter turned to look at Ned.

“ _Absolutely_ not.” He told him. Peter wouldn’t hit Flash because of his super strength, but there was no way he would let his normal strength boyfriend get into a fight on his behalf. Flash’s punches couldn’t really hurt Peter, but they could certainly hurt Ned. There was no way he’d let that happen.

“Just a little one. To his nose. Please, babe?” Ned bargained as they both stood up. Peter barely resisted rolling his eyes even as he felt himself flush a little at the pet name. He still wasn’t quite used to it and Ned definitely knew that. He was abusing his privileges.

                “If you aimed for his face, you’d probably bruise a knuckle.” Peter had learned that the hard way during his first bout of Spider-Man-ing. “And you’d definitely get caught for aiming at such an obvious place.”

                “So I’ll aim for the stomach instead. Softer and less noticeable.” Ned seemed undeterred as they stepped into the aisle and made their way off the bus. Peter bit back a smile as he moved to stand next to MJ. Ned’s obstinacy was both endearing and amusing, although he wouldn’t ever tell the other boy that. The last thing he needed to do was encourage him. “Think how satisfying it would be.” Ned wheedled, ignoring the raised eyebrow MJ gave him as she half turned to listen in. Peter allowed himself just a moment of indulgence – Flash really was quite punchable sometimes, even if Peter would never actually do it – before shaking his head again.

                “Not worth it.” Peter whispered and Ned made a face. He let it drop though, choosing instead to slip his fingers around Peter’s as Mr. Harrington began his school mandatory head count. Peter couldn’t even muster any indignation when Mr. Harrington rather obviously double backed to check him off twice – he _had_ disappeared on some important field trips and it would probably be even worse for Mr. Harrington if he lost a student at a facility as tightly secured as the Compound was. It would be a PR nightmare for the school, at the very least.

                “Alright! Looks like we are all here,” Mr. Harrington clapped his hands once as he spoke and all the students, many who had been excitedly chattering to their friends, turned towards him. “I hope you all took the time to read the guidelines closely,” there were a few grumbles that their teacher either pointedly ignored or was entirely oblivious to as he continued speaking, entirely undeterred. “We’ve just got to find our tour gui- oh there she is!” Mr. Harrington had turned himself around as he spoke and broke into a wide grin as he caught side of a tall woman in a sharp suit with a small box in her hands walking swiftly towards them. Peter, used to going straight into the Avengers’ private section of the compound, breathed a sigh of relief at the unfamiliar woman. The last thing he wanted was someone who recognized him leading the tour.

                “Hello!” Mr. Harrington called out to the woman as she came close enough to hear him. The woman nodded in greeting as she came to a stop in front of the group.

                “Good morning, Mr. Harrington with Midtown High, I presume?” The woman’s voice was coolly polite and brisk, as though she was used to both greeting and turning people away at a moment’s notice. Given the amount of press who had tried to make their way into the Compound following the return of the Rogue Avengers, Peter wasn’t surprised.

                “Yes, that’s me!” Mr. Harrington replied cheerfully, thrusting out a hand for the woman to shake despite the box in her hands. The woman, to her credit, simply moved the small box to the crook of her arm and took Mr. Harrington’s hand in a firm shake. “These are the kids, of course.” He added once he had dropped her hand. “We’re all very excited to be here.”

                “I can tell,” the woman responded, voice still distantly polite. “May I see some ID, Mr. Harrington? It’s protocol.” She managed to add an apologetic tone to her words, obviously intended to soothe any hurt or outrage caused by the demand. Peter knew that several upper level military officials, under the assumption that since Mr. Stark provided weapons for the Avengers, he would also provide them for the government, often came and demanded entry into the Compound and he imagined she perfected the tone on them. On Mr. Harrington, a genuinely affable and non-confrontational man, it worked perhaps a little too well.

                “Of course, of course! I should have already had it out.” Mr. Harrington rushed to say as he patted down his pockets frantically before pulling out his worn leather wallet from the right one. The woman’s face remained carefully polite but Peter could have sworn he saw a glint of amusement behind her sensible, wire-framed glasses. Mr. Harrington tended to have that affect on people. “Here, here! So sorry about that.” Mr. Harrington smiled ruefully as he held his Midtown ID, a little worn on the edges from continuous handling, in front of the woman. She took it in her free hand, eyes darting over the information in a perfunctory glance, and handed it back to him.

                “Everything seems in order. Thank you. My name is Victoria Schwaltz, I am an intern in the Public Relations department of S.H.I.E.L.D. and I will be leading your tour today.” Ms. Schwaltz paused briefly as the students, Peter included, dutifully chorused how nice it was to meet her. “In this box are temporary passes for all of you. When I call your name, please step forward to get yours with your student ID ready. This allows us to check that only those preapproved for this tour are here and to ensure that each of you only has one pass, under your own name. Each of these passes are Level 0 access, which means you are allowed to have access into the entrance of the Compound and all other public access areas, such as the dining area. Each of these rooms are marked by a green light above the access screen. Any attempt to enter rooms that are marked with a different light or display anything else that indicates restricted access will result in a silent alarm and the immediate confiscation of the pass. Depending on the level of restriction, you may be reprimanded and returned to your teacher or you may be escorted off the premises and banned from any future tours. Does everyone understand?” This time, the students’ chorus was far more sober as they all took in her words. No one, except Peter, wanted to miss out on the tour and even Peter had stood a little straighter at Ms. Schwaltz’s words, an automatic reaction to any authoritative voice.

                "Wonderful. Please step forward when I call your name then, with your ID in hand.” Ms. Schwaltz began calling out their names in alphabetical order and Peter worked hard to keep breathing normally as he watched each of his classmates eagerly step forward and receive their passes. His own pass was still firmly stuffed into the bottom of his backpack; Peter had no intention to pull it out until the absolute last minute. No matter how unlikely, he would hold on to the hope that he would not need it until the box in Ms. Schwaltz’s hand was completely empty.

                The box emptied quickly as the names were called and Peter was struggling not to freak out when Ned’s name was called – ‘L’ was far too close to ‘P.’ Ned gave a gentle squeeze of his hand before he stepped forward and handed their tour guide his ID. Peter watched with a carefully neutral face as Ms. Schwaltz gave a perfunctory glance at the ID before handing Ned a pass. Peter bit his lip slightly when Cindy’s name was called as Ned  walked back to him. There were only three students left to be called - Seymour, himself, and Flash - and the way Ms. Schwaltz held the box made it impossible to see how many passes were left in the box. Peter’s nerves were skyrocketing even as Ned returned to his side and took hold of his hand again. Cindy was eager to get her pass and her turn went far more quickly than Peter would have liked. Peter couldn’t help but hold his breath when Seymour was called and he squeezed – perhaps a little too hard – on Ned’s hand.

                A final, slight and desperate hope flared in his stomach as Seymour received his pass and he couldn’t help but give a silent prayer to the Universe for his name to be called. A hope that was dashed just a moment later when ‘Eugene Thompson’ rang out instead of ‘Peter Parker’ and he fought to not let his misery show across his face as Flash shot him a smug look as he passed to collect his pass.

                “Guess they heard about all your lies,” he muttered as he passed and Peter squeezed Ned’s hand in warning as he tried to take a step forward.

                “Not worth it. He’ll learn the truth soon enough.” Peter murmured to Ned in what he hoped registered as a reassuring tone. For once, he was slightly grateful for Flash’s attitude as it gave him a silver lining to focus on. No matter how bad this field trip would be for Peter, it would still be the second one where Flash was made a fool of and there was something immensely satisfying by that.

                “He’d learn to shut his mouth if you let me punch him,” Ned murmured back darkly, eyes still trained on Flash’s form.

                “Nothing is going to make him shut his mouth,” Peter whispered back resolutely, rubbing a gentle circle into the back of Ned’s hand. The other boy relaxed slightly, but Peter could still sense the tenseness in him. “Showing him I actually work here will be something though,” he added, trying to inject some lightness in his tone.

                “Silver linings,” Ned responded a little cheerfully and Peter relaxed somewhat. It was perhaps a bit selfish, but Peter needed Ned to be in a good mood to help buoy him through this situation. He didn’t think he could handle the stress of whatever embarrassing punishment Mr. Stark had planned while also trying to keep the peace between Ned and Flash.

                The small pocket of happiness Peter felt was popped when Flash, after eagerly picking up his pass, began speaking loudly, obviously trying to draw the attention of all his classmates. “Ms. Schwaltz, Peter over there doesn’t have a pass.” Flash pointed in Peter’s direction and Peter flushed pink when everyone looked at him. Evidently, the disparity had not caught anyone else’s attention before, and now everyone – save MJ and Ned – were staring at him in confusion. “Is it because he’s not allowed on the trip because of all his lies?” Flash added, a gleam in his eyes. Peter’s flush darkened as he forced himself to not shift away from the stares.

                Ms. Schwaltz was the only one not looking at Peter; instead her gaze was focused on the paper she had been reading everyone’s name from. “Peter – Peter Parker?” She asked without looking up. Peter nodded before realizing there was no way she could see him. His face darkened even more as he rushed to answer her.

                “Y-yeah! That’s me.” Ned’s hand was the only thing that kept him from rushing forward to address Ms. Schwaltz properly as she finally looked up from her paper.

                “I have a note here saying that you’ve already received a pass? Is this incorrect?” Peter shook his head, eyes glancing briefly at Flash to see his reaction. The other boy was staring at him in confusion and it was somewhat satisfying, even though the weight of everyone else’s gaze made his skin crawl.

                “No, I got one from my – my-“ Peter stalled slightly, unsure what to say. He didn’t know if the note said anything about his Stark Industries internship or whether she was just assuming he had been on a tour before and the pass had been re-activated.

                “It says here that you have one for your internship at Stark Industries. I assume it has been recoded to give you temporary access to the Compound, as is procedure.” There was amusement in Ms. Schwaltz’s voice, Peter was pretty sure, even as she continued to maintain an entirely neutral expression. Peter didn’t know if that was actually the procedure – his pass was used far more at the Compound than it had ever been at the building Stark Industries had been moved into following the sale of the old tower – or if Ms. Schwaltz was taking pity on him but he seized on it the opening anyway. With perhaps more energy than was strictly needed, Peter dropped Ned’s hand and bent down to open his backpack and pull out his Iron Man lanyard to show he had it. He didn’t miss the way Flash’s jaw dropped in surprise when he saw the plastic pass hanging at the end, May’s note still clinging to it.

                “Wonderful.” There was definitely amusement in Ms. Schwaltz’s voice now as she spoke over the surprised muttering that had broken out amongst the students when they took in Peter’s pass. Evidently, only Mr. Harrington, MJ, and Ned had believed him about his internship as everyone else was shooting him surprised, assessing glances and whispering to those around him. Peter fought back his embarrassment by gleaming satisfaction from the shocked look still spread across Flash’s face.

 “Now that all the passes have been settled,” Ms. Schwaltz continued, steadfastly ignoring all the murmuring around her, “we can begin the tour. Please place your passes around your necks and position them to where they can be easily seen and follow me.” She waited patiently for the students to follow her directions before nodding in approval and turning towards the public entrance of the Compound. She walked quickly, her heels clicking rhythmically against the paved ground, and the students had to scramble to follow behind her in an unruly mass. Peter managed to stay next to Ned by keeping hold of his hand – MJ managed to stay next to them by the fact that no one was brave enough to push her out of the way. They all three hung back just enough that they ended up making the back end of the group but not enough that they fell behind. Peter was grateful for that – it was a lot harder for the rest of the students to stare at him when they had to crane their necks to do so.

Peter forced himself to tune out the low tittering of his classmates as the entire group came to a stop in front of the large frosted glass doors of the public entrance. The entrance was a good distraction – Peter had never actually gone through the public one, as Happy always directed him to the private Avengers’ one so that he could bypass all of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and employees responsible for the official Avengers’ work, such as Ms. Schwaltz – and so it was easy to focus on the large doors opening to admit their gawking group.

“Single file now, please.” Ms. Schwaltz called out as she led them through the doors and into a large entry room. The room was dominated by glass windows, designed specifically to let in natural light without allowing any glimpses inside from the outside world, and polished concrete floors. The center part of the room was split by a series of metal gateways – each, Peter knew from discussions with Happy, fitted with access pads directly connected to F.R.I.D.A.Y.. There were several secretaries stationed behind desks, most likely in place for those coming in to receive their passes in normal situations, and several guards, dressed in suits – no doubt hiding tactical gear of some sort - stationed throughout the room. Beyond the gateways, Peter could see employees bustling about and he could hear their low chatter. It was surprisingly busy, compared to the private quarters of the Avengers,  and Peter instinctively tensed. The more people around, the more to see his embarrassment.

“Relax.” Ned murmured, just loud enough that Peter could hear him. “Everything’s been fine so far.” It was certainly true but now that they were actually inside the building, Peter could only imagine the types of misfortunes that could befall them. Still, he opted to just squeeze Ned’s hand rather than respond. He appreciated the other boy trying and he didn’t want to bring him down anymore than already had.

“Each one of these gates are directly operated by Tony Stark’s own AI, F.R.I.D.A.Y.. When someone wants access to the Compound beyond this entryway,  they go forward and place their pass in front of the access pad so that she can read it. If F.R.I.D.A.Y. accepts the pass as genuine, she greets the guest or employee and allows them pass through the gates. If the pass is a fake, F.R.I.D.A.Y. alerts the guards on duty and the person in question is arrested for trespassing.” Ms. Schwaltz gestured towards the guards nearest them, who were watching the group with bored eyes. “For all of you, of course, this will not be an issue, but you will have to pass through anyway. I will go first and demonstrate.” All the students, Peter included, watched as Ms. Schwaltz stepped towards one of the gateways and held her pass in front of the screen.

“Victoria Schwaltz, level 3 intern.” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s soft, lilting voice called out and a few of the students jumped in surprise. “Welcome back,” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice was cooler than Peter was used to, more distantly polite. He supposed that she was more lively in the Avengers’ private quarters and even more so in Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts’ apartment, as she knew everyone there. It had to be hard for the AI to get to know each and every one of the regular employees who came in and out of the Compound. He could only hope that F.R.I.D.A.Y. would maintain her disinterested politeness when he walked through as well.

Ms. Schwaltz gave a perfunctory thank you to the AI as she stepped through and turned back toward the students. “It’s really quite simple. I would like you all to come through now, single file if you please, so that each of you gets the chance to be greeted fully.” Most of the students immediately jostled to be towards the front, eager to claim that they were the first to be greeted by Tony Stark’s very on AI. Peter, Ned, and MJ were some of the few who hung back – Peter because he had actual conversations with F.R.I.D.A.Y. on a semi-regular basis and had his own Stark AI, in the form of the ever helpful Karen, to speak with every day; Ned because he, despite his clear excitement, refused to leave Peter’s side; and MJ because she didn’t rush anywhere. Peter may have taken the moment to try and relax but, unfortunately, Flash had also decided to stay behind and the moment Mr. Harrington moved forward out of ear shot, he turned on the trio.

“You heard Ms. Schwaltz, Penis. The moment you try to pass through, you’re going to get kicked out.” Peter knew he should have ignored him but the sneer in his voice was aggravating and he couldn’t help himself.

“My pass is real, Flash. I actually have an internship.” He didn’t try to hide the tired annoyance in his voice – this had been the second time evidence for his internship was thrown in Flash’s face and the other boy still didn’t get it. His willful ignorance was truly exhausting.

“Bullshit.” The other boy said and Peter felt Ned tense beside him and saw MJ shift from the corner of his eye. At any moment, either of them were liable to jump down Flash’s throat. “I don’t know how you got that note on the paper – probably from that same sad old man who pretended to pick you up for Tony Stark that one day – but no fake you made would hold up to actual Stark technology.” Peter bristled at the insult directed towards Happy – he may exist in a constant state of grumpiness, but Happy was a good man and a decent listener even when he pretended otherwise and he didn’t deserve to be insulted by some stuck up kid like Flash. Before he could say anything, however, the last of the other students was greeted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. and Flash turned to walk through the gateway, a triumphant swagger to his walk.

“You should have let Ned hit him earlier,” MJ drawled as they watched Flash wave his pass over the screen.

“You heard that?” Peter asked her, surprise briefly overcoming his annoyance. He had thought he and Ned had gotten fairly decent at whispered conversations ever since Ned had found out his was Spider-Man and keeping secrets became paramount. MJ just flicked him a brief glance.

“You have no secrets from me, Parker.” She replied simply before glancing away and walking forward to take her turn through the gateway.

“Because that’s _totally_ reassuring.” Peter grouched, not bothering to keep his voice down, absolutely positive that MJ would hear him even if he’d just mouthed the words. MJ responded by flipping him off behind her back as F.R.I.D.A.Y. greeted her. Ned laughed, not at all helpfully, and tugged Peter forward with him. Peter allowed himself to be dragged, knowing that there was no way to avoid the inevitable. Ned, whose excitement was now visible, went first, dropping Peter’s hand as he went forward. Peter missed the warmth but he couldn’t help but smile at the other boy’s exuberant grin as he scanned his pass for F.R.I.D.A.Y.

“Edward Leeds, Level 0 visitor pass.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. read out and Peter’s smile grew at the little excited gasp Ned let out. “Welcome.”

“Thank you,” Ned said happily as he passed through the gateway. Peter, who knew for a fact that having his name acknowledged by a Stark AI was one of Ned’s “Top 100 Things to Do Before Graduation,” couldn’t help but give a thumbs up and a grin to Ned as he turned back around to face him. Ned’s answering smile was enough to drown out the sneer Flash was shooting at him beyond his boyfriend’s shoulder. Ned’s excitement was contagious enough that Peter lifted up his own pass with little trepidation and allowed F.R.I.D.A.Y. to scan it. If she said anything incriminating, then at least Ned was here to get him through it.

“Peter Parker, intern.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. called out. “Welcome, back.” Peter was fairly certain that her tone was warmer than it had been introducing everyone else but he was too relieved that she had announced his pass almost like everyone else’s to be upset by it.

“Thanks, Fri.” He said quietly as he passed through the gateway. Normally, F.R.I.D.A.Y. would strike up a conversation with him before he made it to Mr. Stark’s lab but this time she just hummed, nearly silent, in response, and Peter’s gratitude grew as he walked over to stand between Ned and MJ. Maybe this trip wouldn’t be so bad after all. Flash’s thunderous expression was certainly enough to leave him feeling cheerier than he ever expected to feel on the field trip.

                Peter’s phone dinged as Ms. Schwaltz began leading them down the expansive hallway. Mindful of Mr. Harrington and his no-cellphones-while-an-adult-is-  talking policy, Peter discretely pulled out his phone and checked the screen. A message from an unknown number was spread across the screen and Peter curiously flicked his finger across his screen, mindful of the ever-increasing cracks throughout the glass, to open it.

                _Hello Peter, Boss asked me to message you privately_ _-_ Peter nearly dropped his phone as he read the opening line of the text. F.R.I.D.A.Y. had never once sent a message to him, always speaking straight to him whenever she had something relay, and although he knew she sent them to Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts, and Happy, Peter hadn’t known she was programmed to send him direct messages. Mr. Stark must have authorized her when he fixed his phone a few visits back. Normally Peter would have been thrilled and honored to have a direct line to Tony Stark’s very own AI, but now Peter was absolutely horrified by whatever message Mr. Stark had asked her to relay. 

                “Peter?” Ned’s voice, a quiet whisper next to him, drew Peter away from his phone as he glanced up at his boyfriend. He hadn’t noticed that he had stopped walking when he had begun reading F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s message but as he looked up, he realized both that he was standing in the center of the hallway and that Ned wasn’t the only person looking at him. His face flushed as he took in both Ms. Schwaltz and Mr. Harrington’s displeased expressions.

                “Sorry!” He said, overly loud. His face burned as a few of the workers crossing by glanced at him in confusion. “I just – I really, really need to take this.” He gestured at his phone, perhaps a little wildly as it nearly flew out of his hand. Only his now nearly instinctual habit to stick to things he didn’t want to lose saved the rest of his screen from the polished concrete below. Mr. Harrington’s face scrunched in deeper disapproval.

                “Peter,” he intoned, using the same disappointed tone he’d used when Peter had gone missing from the Academic Decathlon competition the previous year.

                “I know, I know.” Peter held out his hands in a wide, appeasing gesture, tightly clutching his phone so that it wouldn’t be obvious that it was literally sticking to him. “I’m so sorry Mr. Harrington, Ms. Schwaltz. But I got to answer this, it’s a – uh – family emergency.” Mr. Harrington’s face clouded at Peter’s lie as his disapproval warred over with concern for his student. “I promise I’m not going to disappear. I just need to respond!” Peter added hastily, already taking a step back to distance himself from the group. Mr. Harrington’s face was still clouded for a moment longer before his concern won out and he gave a brief nod.

                “I expect you to meet up with us again in a few minutes.” He said finally, trying and failing to add some sternness into his voice. Ms. Schwaltz, standing next to him, didn’t look overly pleased at the prospect of Peter being off on his own but it seemed that the words “family emergency” held weight even with her as she didn’t argue the point.

                “We’re heading straight through there and going through the door at the end–“ she pointed towards one of the smaller branching hallways with an air of impatient disapproval. “There’s several single-stall bathrooms down the hallway to your right you can have some privacy in. If you do not meet up with us in ten minutes, I will alert security to come find you. For your sake, I hope you are either lost or still sorting through whatever the emergency is.” Peter nodded, barely acknowledging the mild warning.

                “Of course, of course. Thank you – and again I’m so sorry.” Peter made to turn but he made the mistake of catching both MJ and Ned’s expressions. MJ raised an eyebrow at him, a silent statement of her disbelief and for the countless time, he vaguely wondered how much she knew before dismissing the thought. What MJ did or did not know was a thought that could haunt him any other day – right now his main concern was whatever Mr. Stark had sent to him via F.R.I.D.A.Y.. All Peter knew for sure was that it was certainly something he could not read in front of his classmates. Ned’s expression was far more complex – his dark eyes shone with both concern and curiosity and his lips were pursed as if he was physically restraining himself from unleashing a torrent of questions. Peter made a split decision and grabbed Ned’s hand. “I need his help.” He explained to Mr. Harrington, tugging the other boy towards him and turning before either Mr. Harrington or Ms. Schwaltz had time to react.

                “I’m sorry! Be back soon!” Ned called over his shoulder as Peter began dragging him away from the group as quickly as possible.

                “Peter! Ned!” Mr. Harrington called but Peter was already turning into the hallway Ms. Schwaltz had mentioned and it was easy to pretend that he hadn’t heard his teacher’s calls beyond the surprisingly thick walls of the Compound. Still, feeling that it was better to be safe than sorry and worried that Mr. Harrington would send another student after them, Peter did not stop rushing until he saw the bathroom sign and had unceremoniously pushed Ned through the door before entering himself and locking the door behind them.

                The bathroom was a bit smaller than Peter had expected, used to the grandeur of the private section of the Compound, where the communal kitchen on the first floor was almost as large as Peter and May’s entire apartment, and he had ended up accidently pushing Ned up against the sink as he turned back around. Feeling a tad too warm, Peter quickly sidestepped so that he was in the open center of the room. Ned, with space to move, turned with him, his expression still full of concern.

                “What is it?” Ned asked. “Who texted you? Is it a Spidey thing?” Ned’s questions came quickly but the other boy still had the forethought to drop his voice a little at the end. Peter was pretty sure that bathrooms were fairly secure rooms for private conversations but it didn’t hurt to be cautious in a building full of trained government agents and the actual _Avengers_.

                “It’s a message from F.R.I.D.A.Y.!” Peter responded, gesturing with his phone once more. “I didn’t get a chance to read it fully, so I have no idea what it’s about but she said Mr. Stark asked her to personally message me! That _can’t_ be good!” Peter’s mind was beginning to run wild with all the things Mr. Stark might have asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. to send him, each worse than the last. He didn’t think he’d be able to force himself to read the message – maybe if he dropped his phone, it could be as though he’d never gotten the text at all. If he accidently-on-purpose dropped it into the toilet and waited approximately thirty seconds before retrieving it, it would probably be too waterlogged to turn back on-

                “It’s probably not that bad!” Ned’s voice pulled Peter from his thoughts just in time – he had just been about to turn towards the toilet. “And whatever it is, you’ve got to read it anyway. There’s no hiding from Tony Stark.” Peter was pretty sure those words were meant to be helpful. The earnest expression on Ned’s face certainly hinted that they were meant to be helpful – still, the uneasy feeling in his stomach grew heavier and he made a face at the other boy. “Do you want me to read it first? I can tell you if its good or bad.” Ned offered, undeterred by Peter’s lack of reaction. Peter thought about it for a moment – it wouldn’t be the first time Ned had pre-screened something for Peter and Peter had returned the favor on several occasions, but those had mostly consisted of skimming texts form angry parental figures or looking under a turned over test to peek at the score. A text from Tony Stark’s AI, on behalf of the man himself, was a whole different issue.

“Peter,” Ned said after several moments of silence. “We have to read it. Do you want me to read it for you?” He offered again. Peter thought about it for a second more – he certainly didn’t want to read it and it wasn’t like Peter didn’t share practically everything Mr. Stark’s said to him with Ned. And Mr. Stark knew about Ned and how close they were anyway. Before Peter could second guess himself, he wordlessly shoved the phone towards his boyfriend. Ned expected this reaction and plucked the phone out from Peter’s hand easily. Peter stared at his face unabashedly, hoping to discern whether the message was good or bad from the other boy’s expression. It only took Ned a moment to read the message and then he was handing the phone back to Peter, a light expression on his face.

“It’s nothing bad,” he told him as Peter gingerly took the phone form him, still a little uneasy about its contents. “Honest, it’s kind of nice actually.” Ned added and gestured towards the phone. Peter finally, begrudgingly, looked down to read the message himself.

_Hello Peter, Boss asked me to message you privately that he hopes your class will enjoy the tour and to tell you not to, in his words, “freak out completely” as he will not show up in person or do anything to embarrass you, although he maintains there is nothing embarrassing about himself and most smart children would be honored to have him crash their fieldtrips. He also says hello to Ed and PJ. Goodbye – F.R.I.D.A.Y._

Peter blinked as he finished the message. Then he read it again. The words did not change despite this, and Peter couldn’t help but let out a long groan as he shoved his phone back at Ned. “I can’t believe this.” He said, a pitiful note in his tone.

“The message was nice, though!” Ned told him, surprise in his tone even as he dutifully took the phone from Peter again, lest he accidently on purpose drop it out of spite. “He promised not to do anything to embarrass you. Now you can enjoy the field trip without worrying about him!”

“I already embarrassed myself!” Peter retorted, making a face as he finally looked at his boyfriend. “Mr. Stark didn’t even have to do anything! I was so freaked out that I couldn’t even read his message like a normal person without making a complete –“ he began flailing his arms again as he worked himself up – “idiot out of myself!” Ned, to his credit, did not laugh at Peter’s dramatics but gently caught one of his extended hands and began rubbing soothing circles into his palm.

“Don’t worry about that. The whole school is kind of used to you occasionally ghosting on things, its no big deal. And Ms. Schwaltz doesn’t know you well, so she probably bought your excuse anyway.” Peter huffed and tugged his hand from Ned’s. Ned allowed his hand to slip away without any fuss.

“Telling me the whole school is used to me flat out disappearing without a good explanation is not as reassuring as you think it is.” Peter said, crossing his arms over his chest. Ned shrugged in response.

“It’s true though.” Ned seemed unfazed by the half-hearted glare Peter threw at him even as he changed tactics. “Look at this way, then. You’ve come back from all those other times you had to randomly disappear just fine, and this time you’ll be coming back almost immediately and there most likely won’t be any strange happenings before we go back to the group. You’ll say your aunt texted you to call her when you could and you were worried because you are a worrier – no one in our group would deny that – but she just wanted to tell you she’d be working late. Then you’ll say you’re really, really sorry and everyone will move on.” Even through his embarrassment, Peter could hear the logic in Ned’s words and he felt his bad mood lifting somewhat. He had survived the mortification of the entire school gossiping about him abandoning Liz at the beginning of Homecoming. And Ned was right that this incident wasn’t nearly as bad as that or anything else he’d done.

“What about you though?” He asked after a moment. “There was no reason to drag you with me. Half the group is going to think we made an excuse to sneak off and make out in the bathroom or something.” That was almost definitely what Abraham and Cindy were going to think, if only because it was something they absolutely would have done. Ned, to Peter’s chagrin, merely smiled at that.

“We’ll tell everyone I’m your emotional support boyfriend, obviously.” Peter wanted to remain grumpy, but it was hard when his boyfriend’s face was so stupidly adorable and he found himself softening up anyway. Ned, sensing his change in emotions, slipped his hands into Peter’s again and tugged to pull him closer. Peter willingly allowed himself to be pulled so that their chests were nearly touching. “And besides, we still _could_ make out in the bathroom,” Peter laughed despite himself, his entire bad mood crumbling under the power of Ned’s audacity. Judging by the large grin breaking out on Ned’s face as Peter pulled away some, without dropping his hand, it had the intended affect.

“Absolutely not,” Peter stated once his laughter subsided. “We are not risking getting caught doing anything remotely inappropriate. _Again_.” Peter took some satisfaction in seeing Ned’s cheeks darken at the reminder of the _incident,_ even as his own did the same.

“Honestly, we can’t do anything much worse in that regard either.” Ned replied even as he stepped more fully away from the other boy.

“Mr. Stark may have said he won’t show up to the tour, but he does live and work here. We could end up getting caught by him,” Peter told him. “Who would tell Aunt May, who would then tell your mother. And then we’d be grounded for an extra month _and_ May would hide more sexual education pamphlets around the apartment. And that _would_ be infinitely worse.” Peter told him and nearly laughed when Ned’s face scrunched up in displeasure.

“You’re right. But you owe me one kiss to make up for this. In a private place. Where no one can catch us. With our luck, probably Mars.” Ned had a point, Peter had to admit. They had an uncanny knack for ending up in bad situations. Which is why they were going to head back to the tour without any more delays. They’d probably have to endure some snide remarks and a lot of suspicious glances from MJ, but Ned was right that they could absolutely handle it. Peter would not allow this to turn into any of their other disasters and with Mr. Stark’s promise to stay out of the way, this field trip might turn out fine, after all.

Peter’s foolishly optimistic mood only lasted the approximately thirty seconds it took to retrieve his phone from Ned and move to unlock and open the bathroom door. The door opened widely to reveal a man standing just outside it, hand poised in front of him as though he had been about to knock. A very tall, very broad man with incredibly blonde hair and startlingly blue eyes that absolutely couldn’t be there – no way the universe hated him so much, Peter had to be imagining it, no way -

“Is that _Captain America_?” Ned’s voice squeaked from behind Peter, dashing all of his hopes that this was some sort of post-stress hallucination. Captain America really was standing in front of him with a mixture of surprise and mild embarrassment written across his face and Peter was wishing less that the universe would swallow him up now and more that the person in charge of his fate would pop in so Peter could punch them in the face.

They hadn’t even _gotten_ to make out this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I would like to apologize for the long wait - I have finally finished the semester so hopefully I can write a lot more regularly again. Second, this was supposed to be the rest of the field trip but it got away from me quite a bit and this is what I ended up with. I hope you all enjoyed it and thank you so much for taking the time to read it, especially everyone who waited such a long time for me to update. The next, and final, chapter should be up much more quickly.


	3. Chapter 3

There was silence for a long moment as both Peter and Ned stared at the man before them with wide eyes. Even dressed casually in a white t-shirt at least one size too small and khakis, he was unmistakable. This was the man who had once dropped a ramp on to Peter in the middle of an airport before asking him where he was from; Peter hated to admit that he vastly preferred their previous meeting to _this_. He would take a couple dozen ramps dropped on him over this, in all honesty.

“Uh –“ At least the older man – Captain America? Was he still called Captain America out of uniform? Or should it be Mr. Rogers now? That sounded wrong; Peter really did not want him as a neighbor. Captain Rogers? – seemed more uncomfortable than lecture-y at the moment. He was staring at the two boys with wide eyes and seemed just as much at a loss on what to say as they were. Maybe Peter and Ned could duck away without saying anything and just pretend this had never happened. Mr. Stark didn’t want Peter meeting the Captain yet anyway – perhaps by the time the engineer was comfortable with them formally meeting this would just be a faded memory for the captain. He probably wouldn’t even remember what Peter looked like.

“What’s the hold up, Steve?” A woman’s voice called out. “It doesn’t take this long to go to the bathroom.” Peter let out a horrified little squeak, his cheeks flaming red, as the tell-tale sound of heels echoed down the hallway. Ned, still partially hidden behind Peter, let out a half-muffled squawk as the Black Widow herself turned the corner towards them, dressed in black jeans and low-heeled boots. She stopped short of the impromptu group and raised a single eyebrow. A distant, less mortified part of Peter’s brain acknowledged that it was a rather similar expression to MJ’s own mildly surprised face.

“Peter?” She asked and Captain America – Rogers? – looked at her in surprise. Peter felt his cheeks burning as Ms. Romanov directed her eyebrow at him. He had last seen her when Mr. Stark had officially introduced them following the nearly-stabbing incident and although she had seemed perfectly nice then, she was one of the last people he would have wanted to see in a situation like this. She actually knew his connection with Mr. Stark and with her appearance, there was no way this wouldn’t get back to him. There was only one thing his panicking mind could come up with.

Before either the adults or Ned could fully react, Peter pushed backgrounds against Ned so the other boy stumbled back into the bathroom with Peter not far after him and slammed the door shut. There were some surprised noises from the other side of the door but Peter ignored them and focused on latching the door shut and turning back towards Ned. The other boy was staring hard at Peter, his own cheeks flushed in an embarrassment that mirrored Peter’s own.  

 “What was that?” Ned finally asked, his voice shaking with surprise. Peter groaned and slipped his hands over his face.

“I panicked!” he said, voice muffled between his fingers. “Oh my god!” He  had made things so much _worse_.

"Hey, hey, it’s okay!” Ned’s hands were on his shoulders now, a steadying presence. He didn’t try to move Peter’s hands from his face or bring him in closer, just squeezed his shoulders hard enough that Peter felt comforted by the weight. For a moment, neither said anything which would have been a further comfort, perhaps, if the walls weren’t thin and Peter’s hearing wasn’t enhanced. As it was, every word of the entirely horrifying conversation taking place outside the bathroom door drafted into the room.

                “Nat, you know them?” Captain America said and Peter could hear the surprise in his tone. He lowered his hands enough to stare in horror at Ned. Captain America was talking about him and his boyfriend to the Black Widow – this was somehow both one of Peter’s nightmares and dreams at the same time. Judging from the conflicted look on Ned’s face, the other boy very much felt the same.

“Just the first one. I have no idea who was behind him,” Ms. Romanov’s voice was calm, nearly bored. Peter could almost believe that she would drag Captain America away and leave the two boys to slip out of the bathroom without notice, but he was never that lucky. And Ms. Romanov knew that Peter was very close to Mr. Stark so there was no doubt that she was curious behind her deceptively calm tone.

“I can’t believe their talking about us,” Ned mouthed at him and Peter shot him a look, half his face still covered by his hands. Ned’s expression was a mix between starstruck – superheroes were _talking_ about him – and horror – superheroes were talking about him as he _hid_ in a bathroom. He was looking far too close to starstruck though and Peter wanted to kick him to keep him in focus. This was not a _good_ thing.

“Are you going to tell me how you know him?” Captain America sounded a mix between curious and exasperated now as though Ms. Romanov frequently withheld information like this. Even in the brief conversation Peter had had with the woman, closely supervised by Mr. Stark, he could imagine that was precisely something she would do if it amused her. Perhaps he would be able to get out of this with some dignity intact; if Ms. Romanov didn’t feel the need to tell Captain America who he was perhaps she would also feel that it was unnecessary to tell Mr. Stark. Peter could handle never coming face to face, unmasked, with Captain America if it meant never having to admit to the Captain who it was currently hiding in the bathroom.

 “Should I?” There was definitely a trace of quiet amusement in Ms. Romanov’s tone now and Peter’s hands fell from his face as he felt a surge of hope. If she withheld the information, Peter would owe her a huge debt but he could live with that.

“Explain how you know a teenaged kid currently hiding in a bathroom in one of the most secured buildings in the United States with another teenaged kid? Yes, you probably should.” There was exasperation in Captain America’s tone now, mixed with a steady heaviness that allowed for no argument. It was a bit like the tone he had used at the airport when he had been talking with Mr. Stark – although a fair bit less extreme - and Peter’s back straightened instinctively. Ned, however, seemed to shrink a little even as a bit of awe etched across his face. Peter had felt much the same when he had first heard that voice so he could hardly blame Ned for his reaction. He didn’t think there was any way someone could refuse that tone – excluding Mr. Stark, of course – but he couldn’t help but hope that Ms. Romanov would keep putting him off. Or at least lead him away so that the two boys didn’t have to hear the conversation.

“His name’s Peter. He works with Tony.” Ms. Romanov’s voice rang out after a pause and Peter wanted to sink into himself.

“He works with Tony? He’s, what, fourteen?”

“I’m almost _sixteen._ ” Peter muttered. It was an instinctive reaction – the same kind of response that any teenager would have made. Peter didn’t even realize his mistake.

There was a surprisingly long break in the conversation outside the door. Then, “you can hear us?” and Peter nearly jumped while Ned’s widened in surprise. Of course Captain America, whose hearing was probably nearly as good as Peter’s, could also hear through the bathroom door, even in whispers.

“No!” Ned squeaked and Peter shot him a wild look. The other boy seemed to realize his mistake because he threw his head back and groaned.

There was another pause. “Why don’t you boys come out and we talk about this like adults rather than through the bathroom door?” Ms. Romanov’s voice was definitely colored by dry amusement. “Or, at least, like _nearly_ sixteen-year-olds.” Peter didn’t think his face had ever felt so hot before but it was certainly burning now. He was almost as desperate to avoid this conversation as he had the one with May and Mrs. Leeds and he – far later than he probably should have – cast an eye around the room for any possible exit other than the actual door. There were no windows, which made sense as the bathroom was an internal room, and although there was a small vent he might have been able to squeeze into leaving Ned to deal with the two by himself was certainly out of the question.

“I’m sorry,” Peter mouthed to Ned, hardly believing that he had managed to get into another incredibly awkward situation. The other boy – almost always able to see the bright side in these situations when they didn’t include his own family walking in on them – just shrugged.

“At least I get to meet some of the Avengers,” he mouthed back, trying and not quite succeeding for a smile. Peter conceded the point. Ned was getting a chance to meet his heroes and there wasn’t even a knife involved this time. It probably helped that this wouldn’t be getting back to _Ned’s_ boss, but Peter couldn’t really begrudge him that. Especially when it was him that made the matter significantly worse by retreating back into the bathroom.

Before he could second guess his decision and retreat further into the small room, Peter unlatched the lock and opened the door a crack. He was slightly hopeful that Captain America or Ms. Romanov would open the door the rest of the way, impatient with the two teenage boys but he had no luck. The door remained opened just the crack as the two adults on the other side seemed content to wait for them. Peter hesitated only a second before placing one hand against the doorknob and gently pushing just enough that he could stick his head out.

Ms. Romanov and Captain America were both standing outside the door – Ms. Romanov looked nearly amused, leaning casually against the far wall but Captain America had his arms – had they always been that _massive? –_ crossed over his chest and the same stern expression he wore in the videos the school forced him to watch. He almost expected him to pull a chair out from nowhere, sit on it backgrounds, and say “So, you got caught with your boyfriend in the bathroom…” The image would have been amusing if it wasn’t happening to him.

“Hello?” he said quietly, regretting the word before it had even fully left his mouth. He could just imagine Ned’s face at his less-than-stellar response but he pushed it out of his mind as he stared at the two superheroes. It wasn’t like the other boy could come up with anything better, anyway. Peter wasn’t sure there was anything that could be said to make this situation any less embarrassing.

“Hello, son. Mind coming out the whole way and letting your friend come out too?” Captain America’s tone was almost gentle, inviting, a stark contrast to how he had been speaking with Ms. Romanov. He seemed worried that Peter would slam the door in his face again if he spoke too sternly – which was unfortunately not that unbelievable – but his gentle demeanor was ruined both by the fact that he was absolutely massive and by the fact that his face was split with one of the largest frowns Peter had ever seen. He wondered momentarily if Captain America knew the connotations of “coming out” but banished the thought quickly. It definitely wasn’t the time for those kind of distracting thoughts.

“Umm…” Peter knew he should leave the room but the last time he was with a less than pleased Captain America, he ended up with several large bruises and even if he knew logically that Captain America wasn’t about to strike him as _Peter,_ he was instinctively not eager to be by him.

“Come on out, Peter. It’s okay.” Ms. Romanov spoke up after a moment, standing up straight and stepping closer to the door. Her face was calm but there was a glint in her eyes that suggested she was entirely entertained by the display in front of her. “No knives this time.” She offered putting out both her hands so Peter could see them. Peter was fairly certain that just because he couldn’t see any weapons didn’t mean she wasn’t packed to the gills but he didn’t think that was something he should point out to a trained assassin. He was at least fairly certain she wasn’t about to pull out a knife on him or Ned which was probably was the least dangerous she ever got.

“What do you mean _knives_?” Captain America rounded on Ms. Romanov and Peter had never thought he would meet anyone who could lace concern and disapproval into their voice as well as May did but the other man could certainly give his aunt a run for her money. “Did you draw knives on a _fifteen_ -year-old?” Peter nearly shrank back as Captain America drew himself to full height even as his disapproval was leveled onto the woman beside him rather than himself. Ms. Romanov, however, seemed completely unfazed.

“Hush now, you’re scaring the children.” She admonished, patting at the captain’s chest in a way that truck Peter as awfully demeaning. But that may have just been  his gut reaction to any adult patting someone – he never felt more like a child than when an adult patted his head or shoulder. He was getting tall enough now that most didn’t do it, but a few of the taller teachers at school still did sometimes and MJ had recently taken to it as a gleeful reminder that she was the tallest in their friend group. Regardless of Peter’s personal feelings on the matter, the pat seemed to have hardly registered with the super soldier who simply continued to stare disapprovingly at Ms. Romanov. Peter, partially because he felt guilty that Ms. Romanov was getting scolded for something that had already been dealt with and partially because Captain America’s disapproval face was _far_ too good, finally stepped out of the bathroom. Ned followed behind him silently but Peter paid him no attention, eyes focused on the two adults.

“Um – Mr. Captain America, sir.” He started, feeling his face flush again when the super soldier’s eyes moved from Ms. Romanov to him. It was amazing how quickly the man was able to change his face – Peter saw only concern where disapproval and sternness had been before. Before the man could jump into some speech apologizing about Ms. Romanov and her knives, Peter continued speaking. “The…um… knife thing happened a long time ago.” A few weeks could categorically be considered a “long time ago”, Peter was fairly sure. “And it was really more my fault than Ms. Romanov’s. I – uh – accidently startled her when I was at the Compound working with Mr. Stark.” Peter didn’t know how convincing his explanation was – he had to be careful, after all, not to include the time they had ran into each other or the fact that he had still been wearing pajamas after staying overnight in Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts’ private floor. These were certainly things that a normal intern would not have done and Peter didn’t want to invite any more questions than he already had.

Captain America stared at Peter for a few seconds and Peter had to force himself to stand still and not give in to his instinctive urge to lean back towards Ned. The discussion of knives was certainly not a comfortable one but it was miles better than the alternative and Peter would gladly talk near death experiences if it meant that the older man before him was completely sidetracked from the original discussion. After one of the longest moments of Peter’s life, Captain America finally spoke, “It was never your fault, son. Nat should have known better than to draw a weapon on a child.” Normally Peter would have been offended at being called a child – he was nearly _sixteen_ years old and he had been fighting crime for almost an entire year, he didn’t need to be coddled – but there was something about the Captain’s calm righteousness that soothed Peter’s edges. An admittedly very mesmerizing pair of bright blue eyes and a chiseled jaw probably helped but that was beside the point.

“I understand, sir.” Peter was at least on familiar territory – for some reason, adults always seemed to want to lecture him on what he should and shouldn’t take responsibility for – and his voice was a little steadier as he addressed the super soldier before him. “But Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts already dealt with the matter and I’ve also personally discussed it with Ms. Romanov.” Sort of, anyway. Mr. Stark never left either of them out of his sight and Peter was pretty adamant about not dwelling on the incident, lest he accidently let something Spider-Man related out since he was pretty sure a super spy would be able to tell that his reaction to almost being stabbed was not the same as the average high schooler’s. “There’s no reason to bring up the past.” He added firmly, peppering just a bit of his Spider-Man confidence into his voice.

He waited a moment for either adult to speak but Ms. Romanov seemed content to let it all drop – she wasn’t one to dwell on situations, Peter was quickly finding out -, Captain America seemed to be too surprised by Peter’s defense of Ms. Romanov to come up with a quick response and Ned seemed content to silently watch everything play out without speaking a word – although Peter was certain he would be spouting off all kinds of things to Peter about the meeting later. Seeing his chance to get out of the situation without any more embarrassment – he would never be more grateful for being nearly stabbed than he was in this moment – Peter took a gamble. “It was nice seeing you again, Ms. Romanov,” he said after the silence, reaching behind himself and grabbing a hold of Ned’s wrist loosely. “and it was nice meeting you, Captain, sir. But we really must be going, so –“ he made to move past the two adults, tugging Ned along behind him but before he could take more than a few steps, Ms. Romanov was shooting an arm out to stop him.

“Not so fast now, Peter.” Her voice was calm but there was a glint in her eye. Had she not known his name, Peter might have tried to push away from her and dart away, anyway but he couldn’t risk this getting back to Mr. Stark or Aunt May and the only way that would happen was if he could convince Ms. Romanov that nothing strange or worth reporting on was happening, so he obediently stopped in front of her arm, cursing his luck inwardly. “Our meeting may be in the past, but this certainly isn’t.” Peter forced himself to remain calm as Ms. Romanov spoke even though he wanted nothing more than to disappear.

Her words seemed to shake Captain America from his surprise and concern over the knife incident and he took to staring sternly at the two boys again. “Nat is right. What happened in the past can stay there, but this should be dealt with now.” Peter waited a moment to see if the older man would continue speaking but Captain America fell silent. Peter gave a silent prayer to the universe and took a chance.

“What is _this_ , exactly?” He asked, forcing nonchalance into his voice as he took a small step away from the two adults, still holding onto Ned’s wrist loosely. Captain America did not seem impressed by his faux casualness as he folded his arms over his chest.

“Why are you here and not in school? Surely Tony isn’t pulling you out of classes to do intern work with him.” There was a note of consternation in his voice, as though Captain America thought Mr. Stark would be that irresponsible. Peter immediately bristled at the insult to his mentor but he forced himself to let it go. Getting into a fight with Captain America about how responsible Mr. Stark was would be the easiest way for the entire incident to get back to the other man and Peter would rather let Ms. Romanov stab him. “And who are you with, exactly?” Captain America pointed to Ned whose immediate response was to slide behind Peter slightly with a nearly inaudible squeak. “Are you skipping school to sneak friends into here? Why were you in the bathroom?”

Captain America continued firing off questions and Peter had to force himself not to react badly. He didn’t like the Captain’s attention on Ned at all – he knew logically there was no way the man would hurt Ned, but it was hard not to instinctively want someone capable of holding down a helicopter to back off of his boyfriend. And he certainly didn’t like the accusation that he would ever break Mr. Stark’s trust by sneaking people into the Compound. And if he did, it certainly wouldn’t have been to show him the _public_ bathrooms on the S.H.I.E.L.D. side of the building. He waited until the older man was done speaking before he replied, not quite able to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

“This is Ned.” Peter gestured towards his still silent boyfriend with his free hand. “And we’re not skipping school – we’re on a field trip. Mr. Stark would never allow or encourage me or anyone else to skip school,” he couldn’t help but add, unable to stop himself from defending his mentor. He barely resisted the urge to drop Ned’s wrist and fold his arms across his chest as he stared down the super soldier in front of him.

“Ned, huh?” It was Ms. Romanov who spoke then, looking at Peter before flicking her gaze to Ned. “You both go to Midtown, right?” She directed the question to Ned, who nodded silently, eyes wide. He had obviously not expected to be directly addressed by either hero and the starstruck expression on his face had a feeling of protective fondness rush throughout Peter.

“How do you know that?” Peter asked, purposely bringing their attention back to him and not on Ned. It was a useless question – Ms. Romanov was a spy, after all. But that hardly mattered – it did what he wanted and brought Ms. Romanov and Captain America’s attention back to him.

“I overheard the intern in charge of the tours.” Ms. Romanov responded lightly, completely unbothered by Peter’s tone as she turned back to him. If she had caught on to Peter’s reluctance in allowing them to question Ned, she didn’t show it. “How’d you end up in the bathroom and not with the tour?” She asked and Peter felt his cheeks warm up faintly. Reluctant to fall for her bait, however, Peter mustered all the teenage indignance possible before answering.

“With all respect Ms. Romanov, I don’t see how it’s any of your business,” he told her, making a show of crossing his arms over his chest in typical teenage anger. All his well-ingrained manners were screaming the back of his head, in a voice quite similar to his aunt’s, but he ignored it. Politeness hadn’t worked to drag him from this mess and he really wanted to get him and Ned out before Ms. Schwaltz called security on them. Their allotted time must have already passed and she hadn’t seemed the type to cut much slack when it came to the security of the Compound. He had to use any method necessary before security found them – there was no way Mr. Stark wouldn’t be notified, then.

“It’s not.” That was Captain America, rejoining the conversation. He was staring down at Peter in a way that probably would have intimidated the average teenager. But Peter had stared down the barrel of several guns at this point and the good captain’s disapproving tone wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the thought of Mr. Stark hearing that security had to be called because Peter had dragged Ned to the bathroom in the middle of their tour and hadn’t returned. There was very little more terrifying than that. “But we’re asking anyway.” And you’re going to answer was left unsaid but Peter could hear it in his tone. He made a show of squaring down on his attitude.

“Fine.” Peter replied, purposely not bothering to hide his annoyance anymore. Aunt May’s voice was growing louder in the back of his head but he pushed it down. He would tell them the lie he’d told Mr. Harrington and Ms. Schwaltz and be done with it. “A family emergency came up and I needed to answer a message. Ned came with me for support. Now, we need to return to the field trip before our teacher starts worrying.” He conveniently didn’t mention the threat of the guards coming after them – he didn’t need to give Ms. Romanov or the Captain any ideas.

Unfortunately for Peter, his lying ability was still subpar compared to most teenagers and although Mr. Harrington was open enough to accept pretty much any excuse at face value, the two Avengers were decidedly not. Captain America’s expression didn’t soften and Ms. Romanov seemed outright skeptical at Peter’s words. “A family emergency? Care to elaborate? Maybe we can help.” Peter had to fight to keep the sudden spike of panic that went through him off his face. Captain America had called his bluff effortlessly and Peter was floundering on a response. Had it been May or Mr. Stark, Peter would have shamelessly double-downed on his lie until they outright called him out; Mr. Harrington never called Peter’s bluffs and he did not really have to worry about any other adults, apart from Ned’s parents who generally just passed the issue on to his aunt.

It ended up being Ned, surprisingly, who saved the situation. The other boy’s speechlessness must have worn off while Peter was talking back to the two Avengers and he spoke up then, before the thickening silence condemned both boys. “A family emergency’s pretty personal, don’t you think?” his voice was much too loud, but his tone was at least even. Both Ms. Romanov and Captain America turned to look at him rather than Peter and he breathed a bit easier. Even though Peter did not want Ned in their crosshairs, the other boy was at least a marginally better liar. “It’s quite rude to ask someone about that. It’s even ruder from keeping them from what they are supposed to do.” Ned added pointedly, summoning every ounce of his mother’s consternation in his voice as he grabbed hold of Peter’s wrist. Peter could feel that the other boy’s fingers were shaking slightly – he was most likely fighting every single urge to not fanboy all over both the heroes and holding onto his presumed anger – but his voice was calm even though it was still far too loud.

Captain America seemed a bit stunned at Ned’s words but Ms. Romanov seemed even more amused. Whether it was by the two boys or the Captain’s reaction to them, Peter wasn’t sure. Likely, it was a mixture of the two. “I suppose the boy’s right, Steve.” Ms. Romanov said, after a moment of heavy silence. Peter nearly breathed a sigh of relief but the woman continued speaking before he had a chance, “then again, I’m sure your teacher wouldn’t want you returning to the field trip when you’re dealing with a family emergency. Maybe we should alert Tony about the situation and have someone drive you home, Peter. Ned, too, since he seems involved.” Peter felt as though the floor had fallen out from under him – or perhaps it was more apt to say that he had been swept up by the Black Widow as her certainly felt like she had caught him in a trap. What struck him most was the reasonableness of her statement – it was certainly logical to send a child home after they had claimed a family emergency and it would be hard to explain how an emergency big enough to separate him from the field trip had miraculously just disappeared.

“There’s no need to bother Mr. Stark,” he settled on finally, fighting the urge to just grab Ned’s hand and run away from the entire situation at hand.

“I highly doubt Tony would ever consider you a bother, Peter. And besides, Happy’s given you rides before, hasn’t he?” Peter could feel Ms. Romanov’s web tighten around him with every pseudo-kind word out of her mouth. It didn’t help that the words were eerily reminiscent to some things the older engineer had said to Peter before, during his doubtful days. How Ms. Romanov knew he’d said things like that before, Peter had no clue. Peter began to tap his fingers against his leg in an attempt to release his nervous energy.

It was Ned again, who responded to the challenge when Peter let the silence hang. “There’s no need to bother Mr. Stark because the emergency was a false alarm. If it hadn’t been, obviously we wouldn’t still be here.” It was a decent enough excuse, but Ms. Romanov jumped on it.

“Why didn’t you say that to begin with?” It was another call out and had it been Peter dealing with it alone, he would undoubtedly have caved. Ned, however, had far more experience evading questions from his younger sisters and he was tenacious enough to fight what was – in Peter’s opinion - an obviously lost battle.

“Because it really isn’t your business.” He replied tartly, his fingers fully wrapping around Peter’s wrist in a bid to get him to stop fidgeting. “You guys are heroes and you always want to help people, I get it. That’s awesome! Really, really awesome, actually –“ Peter feared that the other boy was going to veer too far off course, distracted by the fact that he was actually speaking to two of his favorite heroes, but Ned rallied himself and continued “-but we don’t need any help. And you’re actually hindering us by keeping us from learning at the field trip. You don’t want to be partly responsible for the decline in American education, do you?” The jab was a last-ditch effort – the kind Peter was most accustomed to – but it seemed to have at least somewhat of the desired effect. Neither the captain nor the Black Widow seemed to have a response for Ned’s accusation at the ready and in the moment it took for either of them to come up with a response, another voice rang out.

“They most certainly would not.” Peter outwardly flinched at the all too familiar voice as both he and Ned turned towards the sound. Mr. Stark, dressed impeccably in a dove-gray suit, was standing at the entrance of the hallway, two surly looking security guards behind him. His face was carefully neutral but Peter could see the hint of quiet fury in his eyes even at a distance. Ned beside him had squeaked quite loudly and seemed adamant in trying to hide behind Peter – this had not been the way Peter hoped his boyfriend would meet his mentor and he certainly couldn’t fault him for wanting to hide from the situation. If he could convince the floor to open up beneath him that very moment, Peter would have made his peace with the mole people in the subway tunnels.

“This is not happening,” Peter blurted out, not even bothering to lower his voice. He could hear both Ms. Romanov and Captain America shifting behind him, moving forward a few steps, but he didn’t take his eyes off Mr. Stark. All he had wanted was to survive this field trip with minimal embarrassment and get back home to suffer through the rest of grounding. Now, after May heard this latest escapade – that he had been caught leaving a bathroom with his boyfriend after ditching the rest of his classmates – he would be lucky to ever be able to leave the apartment again. Odds are, he wouldn’t want to anyway. “You are not here.” He pointed his finger at Mr. Stark who was slowly striding down the hallway – both the guards had faded from sight, likely returning to their actual posts now that the two wayward students had been found. Mr. Stark was unfazed by Peter’s reaction as he came to a stop just in front of the two boys.

“Oh, but I am. See, I get an alert every time there is a potential security breach on either side of the Compound. Normally I let the small guys handle these kinds of things, but when I heard the name “Peter Parker” and “never returned to the group” in the same sentence, I had to check on you. Can’t let you disappear on my own premises, kid. Hot Aunt May would have my head and Pep would help.” Mr. Stark’s voice was deceptively calm, but Peter could see the fire banking in his eyes even as the older man flicked his gaze to Ned, “probably Ted’s parents too, for that matter. I’ve heard his mother is just as terrifying. Nice to meet you, by the way.” Mr. Stark made a dismissive, wave-like motion in greeting to Ned but his gaze didn’t stay long on him, moving instead to the two adults just behind the boys now, who had remained surprisingly silent. Accustomed as he was to the engineer’s moods, Peter was probably the only one – with the possible exception of Ms. Romanov with her spying abilities – who saw the slight twitch in Mr. Stark’s mask.

Why he seemed angrier at the two other adult heroes and not the teenagers, Peter did not know, but he took a surreptitious half-step back, grabbing hold of Ned’s wrist to pull him back as well as Mr. Stark spoke. The man’s face remained deceptively neutral, but his tone was absolutely glacial. “Cap. I’d say it’s nice seeing you, but I’m not a liar,” there was a special emphasis on _liar_ that Peter didn’t understand, and he took another few steps to the side so that he was out of the view of the adults, dragging Ned along with him. There was no need for them to be in the middle of whatever _that_ was about.

 Mr. Stark didn’t give Captain America a chance to respond to him, rounding on Ms. Romanov immediately. “Nat. I thought we’d talked about you and my intern. In fact, I distinctly remember telling you to stay away from him, unless I knew what was going on.” Peter hadn’t known Mr. Stark had made such demands of the woman and he felt a strange mix of warmth – that Mr. Stark cared enough to tell the Black Widow to back off – and indignation – he wasn’t a _child_ , and Ms. Romanov seemed harmless enough when she didn’t have a knife in her hand.

“Tony –“ Captain America tried, but Mr. Stark held a hand up and the taller man fell silent.

“Don’t. I really don’t need to hear whatever justification you had for cornering two underage boys in a hallway. _You_ stay away from Peter entirely, Cap.” There was definite anger on Mr. Stark’s face now, and Peter could only guess at the rage simmering underneath the surface of Mr. Stark’s professional façade. He was pretty sure it had little to do with him but he still thought it prudent to make himself as small as possible against the far wall. He didn’t dare try to actually leave the hallway with Ned – there was no way the adults weren’t still aware of the two teenagers – but there was certainly no harm in _lessening_ their visibility.

“Tony, we didn’t mean any harm. We didn’t even know Peter was here,” It was Ms. Romanov speaking then, her voice calm as she attempted to soothe. “Steve ran into him leaving the bathroom with Ned; we were just trying to figure out why he was here and not in school.” Peter flinched; he knew Ms. Romanov was just trying to soothe the obvious tensions between Mr. Stark and the Captain but he didn’t appreciate the fact that she totally sold him and Ned out. Mr. Stark had given no indication that he had known Peter and Ned had been together in the bathroom but he certainly knew now.

“I wouldn’t give a damn if you found them peeing on Fury’s desk, Natasha.” Mr. Stark said bluntly. “Or drinking all of the beers in the Avengers’ communal fridge. Peter is my responsibility, not any of yours. Leave him be or I won’t be so nice next time, understand?” Ms. Romanov, most likely in an effort to keep the peace, simply nodded. Captain America, evidently undeterred, opened his mouth to speak. Mr. Stark cut him off without hesitation. “Unless the words leaving your mouth are going to be ‘yes, Tony,’ keep them to yourself. Stay away from the kid until and unless I say you can go near him. You see him in this hallway, or on the Avenger’s side, or literally anywhere else and I’m not with him, you walk the other way. I don’t care if he’s eating your last Greek yogurt or pissing in the cheerios, you don’t speak to him.” Peter had only ever heard that tone once – when Mr. Stark had taken the suit away – and he instinctively cringed further against the wall. Ned, standing against the wall beside him, shot Peter a confused and rather panicked look. Peter would have tried to reassure him, but he had no idea what was happening. He didn’t think Mr. Stark’s anger was really about them, but he had no idea what else had upset the older engineer. And he was absolutely not about to jump into the conversation.

Captain America didn’t seem ready to drop the conversation but Mr. Stark seemed equally determined that it was over. Before the taller man had a chance to speak another word, Mr. Stark had turned away from him, his eyes lighting on the boys again for the first time since he had confronted the two other heroes. Peter and Ned both instinctively shrank further against the wall at the anger clearly written on the man’s face. “Let’s get you two back to where you’re supposed to be,” was all Mr. Stark said, clapping a hand briefly on both boys’ shoulders. Ned and Peter quickly slid from the wall, both rather eager to not anger the older man, and began walking silently alongside him. Peter purposely kept his face forward, determined to ignore the two heroes still behind him – he was insanely curious about what Mr. Stark’s anger was about but there was no way in hell he was bringing it up and risking Mr. Stark’s anger being set on _him_. Ned beside him, unable to show the same restraint,  couldn’t help but turn around for a final glance.

“Keep looking forward, Ted. They aren’t that special.” Mr. Stark’s voice was pleasant enough now, all anger replaced with the easy humor Peter was more accustomed to but Ned still jumped in surprise.

“S-sorry Mr. Stark, sir!” Ned squeaked, nearly tripping over his feet in his effort to turn back around fully. Only Peter’s head shooting out to steady him kept him from faceplanting at the entrance of the hallway.

“Nothing to apologize for, Ted.” Mr. Stark was sounding downright cheerful now. How he had switched so quickly from anger to happiness, Peter didn’t know but he wasn’t going to question it. “Now, your class is, if I’m not mistaken - which I am rarely am – in the cafeteria for an early lunch. Why don’t we go meet them?” Mr. Stark clapped his hands together as both boys turned to look at him. They had stopped in the larger hallway that they had originally left their group in and were drawing a few curious glances from passing agents. Mr. Stark ignored all the stares with the ease of someone who had lived in the spotlight all his life and Peter and Ned both struggled to mimic his act of indifference. It was especially hard to do when Peter was having yet another mini panic.

“That’s really not necessary, Mr. Stark. I’m sure Ned and I can find the way.” Peter tried not to sound too eager to get rid of his mentor; an effort that was entirely for naught, judging from the wicked grin Mr. Stark gave him in response.

“There’s no way I’m leaving you both alone again, kid. The way you two are, I leave you here and May’s going to have a grandniece or nephew when you get home.” Peter’s face flushed scarlet while Ned choked on his own breath.

“ _Mr. Stark_!” Peter hissed, absolutely scandalized. A few agents stopped briefly, surprised by the outburst, but Mr. Stark waved them off with a dismissive hand, grinning widely at the two teenagers in front of him.

“Don’t “Mr. Stark” me, kid. Not when you two got caught sneaking out of a bathroom together by _Natasha Romanov_ less than a week after you got caught sharing a room.” Mr. Stark at least had the decency to keep his voice down, although that didn’t help Peter’s staccato heartbeat. His mentor’s obvious amusement at the situation didn’t help. “I know you’re teenagers, but Jesus, kid. Can’t it wait until – I don’t know – you’re not in _public_?”

“Can’t this _conversation_?” Peter demanded, as the older man waved yet another overly curious passerby off.

“You’re worried about the public _now_?” Mr. Stark shot back, although his voice remained quiet enough that no one around them could really hear. It was the only blessing he seemed willing to give the two boys but Peter found it hard to feel grateful when his face felt hot enough to melt steel.

“It really wasn’t like that, Mr. Stark, sir!” Ned spoke up before Peter had a chance, his voice cracking a bit in the middle. “We weren’t doing anything like – like _that_!” Peter could hear the embarrassment plain in his voice and wished he would speak just a little bit quieter. Ned had never learned the art of whispering and judging from the surprised looks they were now getting, it was clear that the people passing by had heard him clearly.

“Oh? Wasn’t like what, Ed? Mr. Stark was goading now. Peter could hear the tone in his voice that absolutely spelled trouble but before he could say anything, Ned began to reply.

“It wasn’t – you know,”  Ned floundered, obviously reluctant to put into words what Mr. Stark was suggesting. He ducked his face down and Peter felt a rush of protectiveness. Mr. Stark could tease him all he wanted, but it wasn’t fair to give Ned the same treatment. Not when Mr. Stark didn’t even know the other boy and not when it was Peter that dragged Ned into this mess.

“I was freaking out about the field trip and when I got your message I panicked. Ned came with me to read it.” Peter spoke perhaps a little too loudly but he wanted to make his words known before his mentor could dig into Ned further. He didn’t even care about the people passing by anymore; he locked eyes with Mr. Stark when the man’s gaze turned to him and he stared defiantly. A hint of his anger must have shown because Mr. Stark’s amused smile melted into a more serious expression. “I was worried you would embarrass me by making a public scene somehow. To get back at me.” _For the Spider Man scare_ was left unsaid but the words hovered between them nonetheless. The accusation in Peter’s words was clear and Mr. Stark grimaced.

“Come with me,” he told both boys, his voice curt. Peter’s anger gave way to surprise as he obediently followed the older man into a different hallway, identical to the one they had been in earlier. Mr. Stark was silent as he led both boys to a frosted glass door and opened it. The room was completely empty, save for a long table set with chairs and Ned and Peter slipped in after Mr. Stark after only a moment. The silence unnerved Peter and he worried that his words angered Mr. Stark; an immediate apology was on his lips when the older man turned around to face them, half leaning, half sitting on the long table.

“I owe you both an apology.” Peter blinked and Ned beside him started in surprise.

“Mr. Stark, sir –“

“That’s not nec -“ both boys began speaking at once but fell silent as Mr. Stark raised a single hand.

“Adult is talking.” He told them and both automatically mumbled their apologies. “I don’t admit when I’m in the wrong – mostly because I hardly am – so just stand there and listen.” Mr. Stark continued as if neither had said anything.  “I had Fri send that message because May told me you were panicking and I thought it would calm you down, I should have realized it would freak you out more. When I got the alert that you both had left the group, I assumed you ditched to go mess around and I didn’t consider how uncomfortable you were. Then, I lost my temper with Cap and Nat and I decided to tease you about something I didn’t know for sure to make myself feel better and I embarrassed you both. That was neither responsible nor fair to either of you. So I’m sorry.”

There was a momentary silence following Mr. Stark’s words as both boys took them in. Then there was an explosion of sound as both boys rushed to assure the older man that all was well.

“You don’t need to apologize! _We_ snuck off!” Peter’s words reverberated a little at how loud he spoke.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for! It looked really sketch!” Ned’s words were accompanied by a wide gesture with an unclear meaning.

“Really, it’s fine!” Both boys added simultaneously, their voices echoing off of each other. Mr. Stark blinked.

“That was weird. Don’t do that.” He told them, amusement back in his tone. “And just take the apology, okay? They aren’t given often.” Mr. Stark briefly clapped both boys’ shoulders again, a lightness back in his voice that had been missing when he apologized. “Now, you really should get back before Ms. Schwaltz sends security again. That woman could give Pepp a run for her money in the terrifying department. They should still be in the cafeteria so that’s just down the main hallway and the second set of double-doors on the right –“ Mr. Stark was opening the door as he spoke, leading the boys out.

“You aren’t going to come with us?” Peter asked, unable to hide the surprise in his voice as he left the room. Mr. Stark shot him a look over his shoulder.

“I _just_ apologized for embarrassing you, Peter. You were here for that, right? I’m not going to immediately rescind that by being the adult to drag you back to your classmates. There’s going to be questions enough, no need to add me into the mix. Even though it would probably shut up that one brat who didn’t believe you up once and for all.” Mr. Stark added the last sentence casually, as though it was nothing more than an afterthought but it still stopped Peter and Ned both in their tracks.

“You heard _that_?” Peter demanded, his voice cracking a little at the end.

“You think that would work?” Ned asked at the same time, his voice more curious than horrified. Peter resisted the urge to elbow him.

“Creepy couple thing. Again.” Mr. Stark told them, voice full of dry amusement. “Of course I heard it, I hear everything, kid. The sooner you get that the sooner you’ll stop trying to pull one past me. And of course it would work – can’t deny someone knows someone when both show up right in front of you. But, unfortunately for us Tedward, Peter is too gentle of a soul and would never allow us to embarrass the hell out of that brat, and we must respect his wishes.” Peter made a face at his mentor but he couldn’t say anything before Ned was half turning to look at him.

“It would shut him up though.” Ned said. Peter shot him a look.

“No!”

“Oh come on, I want to see Flash’s face. _Please_ babe?” Ned was wheedling now, apparently all sense of shame and propriety gone now that Mr. Stark was offering him a chance to get back at Flash. Peter’s face flushed furiously, a mixture of the warmth that always accompanied Ned’s use of pet names and embarrassment that he had said it in front of Mr. Stark. He would be getting back at him for that later.

“Absolutely _not_!” He told him. Ned shrugged in response.

“Worth a shot.” Peter swatted his shoulder as Mr. Stark had the audacity to laugh.

“Oh, I like this one.” Ned beamed at the older man’s words and even Peter, embarrassed as he was, couldn’t help but bask a little in the warmth that came from Mr. Stark’s approval. Ned was important to him and although he knew Mr. Stark didn’t _not_ like him, there was something truly wonderful about hearing that approval in his tone. “Now get going before Ms. Schwaltz decided to come after us herself.” Mr. Stark made a shooing gesture with his hands and both boys obediently turned to begin walking down the hallway. “And no more sneaking around – I want my intern back _before_ he graduates high school!” He called down to them. Peter couldn’t help but turn around and stick his tongue out at the older man in response as Ned laughed beside him.

Ned’s hand slipped into his own as they left the hallway and made their way to the cafeteria and Peter basked in the warmth of the contact. Today had been bad, astronomically bad – and he was fairly certain it would be worse when May got the notification from the school that Peter had dipped out of _another_ school trip – but at the moment he couldn’t help but feel happier and more content than he had since he had gotten caught in Ned’s bedroom. Ned had stayed beside him for all of the craziness with no complaint – had stood up to Captain America _and_ Ms. Romanov for him. Mr. Stark had met and strongly approved of Ned. Everything else, even the knowing, teasing looks Ned and Peter got from their classmates as they slipped back into the group and the disapproving ones from Mr. Harrington and Ms. Schwaltz wasn’t enough to burst the bubble of happiness inside Peter’s chest. Ned squeezed Peter’s hand when Flash shot them a look and Peter couldn’t help but smile a little.

 With Ned beside him, Peter could conquer all the universe set before him easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed it! I had some trouble on how I wanted to end the story, but I hope it was satisfying! I'll have the next story up as soon as possible!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, thank you for reading! I'm so sorry for the wait - I've entered my final semester so things are getting kind of crazy but I still love this pair and plan on continuing the story! Anyway, I hope you liked this - I admit the whole thing kind of got away from me and is way longer than I intended but I enjoyed writing it. The next chapter will be the actual field trip and I hope to have it up as soon as possible. This is the third to last story in this series but I have another one that I'm working on now that I hope you all will check out. Again, thanks for reading!


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